Keep It Quiet For Now
by xXxJazzy B. RealxXx
Summary: Once settled under the roof of InuTaisho, it's clear that two hotheads doesn't equal peace between half-brothers. Hidden and revealed secrets between them burdens everyone with betrayal and unrequited love. Damn those wenches. Inuyasha and Ranma crossover
1. Prologue

**_"Keep It Quiet For Now"_**

**Disclaimer**: If I owned Ranma ½ and Inuyasha, I wouldn't be writing fanfictions, riiight?

I'm sure everyone's written a dozen Ranma and Inuyasha crossovers, but I couldn't help myself. I've only read one Ranma/Inuyasha crossover, after all. So hopefully, you can enjoy yourself with the plot I'm concocting.

**Summary:** _After the death of Ranma's mother, Izaoyi, and the disappearance of his father, he retreats from Akane and the Dojo to fulfill his mother's dying wish – to devote himself to mending the heart of her oldest son and his half-brother, Inuyasha. Once settled under the roof of InuTaisho, it becomes clear that two hotheads doesn't equal peace. _

_But after discovering a common, personal secret about one another, perhaps they'll come to an understanding. Yet after discovering a personal secret dealing with two beloved girls and one sacred jewel, a burden of betrayal and romance sets them up to the ultimate test of brotherhood, responsibility and trust._

Summary's bad, but I really don't like giving away all the details in it. I'd say this story will come along nicely if I get some encouragement. The prologue here isn't meant to give everything away, of course. You'll be seeing all that in the next chapters.

_The main love SQUARE: AkanexRanmaxKagomexInuyasha_

_Oh, Ryoga and Shampoo make their appearances, too. Except Shampoo's heart eyes are now directing on Inuyasha…temporarily. There's a lot of 'stories' in this single one, so here's the first entry to eventual upcoming mayhem._

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

**Prologue**

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Hey, I think the little guy's hungry," Ranma realized, seeing as the yellowed puppy tried to nibble on his half-brother's bare ankles.

"He's YOUR problem, so go FEED him already!" Inuyasha snorted as he drew back his boot to kick the mangy pup away.

"Well ex-CUSE me!" Ranma's face morphed into a tantrum-driven troll with his black shoulder blade-length braid bouncing about. "But Pooch is NOT a problem! If anyone's a problem it's that stupid wolf-dog Balto or whatever the hell his name is! That thing's POSSESSED by the DEVIL! Besides, Pooch was a gift from YOUR old man!"

"Oh quit your yappin' you spoiled brat!" Inuyasha barked aggressively as if he were that wolf-dog, his thick black hair bristling. "His name's DITZER for cryin' out loud!"

"Ditzer? Like Ditzy?" Ranma blinked dumbly for a moment before smirking cattily. "Well now that's even WORSE."

Inuyasha 'Keh'd and linked his arms across his chest. "He reminds me of Kagome…"

"Kago…me?" Ranma scratched a fingernail against his cheek. "Who's that? Is that that girl you spend so much time with and talk to over the phone that I haven't seen yet?"

"Huh…?" Inuyasha gave his half-brother a more attention-based face of surprise before huffing. "Forget it. Never mind."

"Ho no! No, no!" Ranma scrambled up to the older half-brother on all fours. "Tell me, man!" Then his lips slanted cunningly. "Oooh, don't TELL me!"

"Wha…" Inuyasha sweat dropped before a vein replaced it. "Make up your MIND, you moron!"

Ranma finished his little remark, "She's a GIRLFRIEND of yours, ISN'T she?"

"…SAY WHA?!" Inuyasha ear lobe twiddled a bit to make sure he had heard correctly. "D…Don't be STUPID! There's nothing between me and the wench!" he lightly pressed a finger into Ranma's brow and then, without any effort, shoved him back. "She's SIMPLE-minded, stupid, childish, annoying, UN-cute and has a flaring temper that's worse than MINE! She'd rather KILL me than kiss me!"

Ranma, spiraled out on his back against the floor, just contemplated with the ceiling. "Hm…that sounds like AKANE." He shivered after mentally sculpting out her blazing glare.

"Akane?" Inuyasha spoke through the side of his mouth. "That fiancée of yours back at the Dojo?"

"Yeah, dad had set us up awhile back. Mom always told me that if something were to happen to her, she'd want me to come here to...u-uh, to finally m-meet you and InuTaisho. And now that mom's gone, I….well," Ranma's eyes glossed over in a blanket of cloaking memory. "I had to leave Akane--…the _Dojo _and reside here, as she wished. So now that we're apart, the engagement's over."

Inuyasha stared at the boy under a façade of solemnity, indigo eyes hard and solid under the curtaining of messy black bangs. _'I can't believe we never knew about him up until now. Here I thought I was the youngest of mother's children. I guess after leaving father the taste of demons got bitter in her mouth and she moved on to humans.'_ He observed Ranma quietly. _'He is a full human, I mean. And he looks almost identical to ME…' _

Ranma raised his head from a puddle of despair at Inuyasha's "Keh."

"Still love 'er, huh?" Inuyasha turned his head away, eyes closed arrogantly.

Ranma's fuse busted. "WHAAAT?! HEY! BUTT OUTTA MY LIFE! I NEVER SAID THAT, YOU JERK!"

"You never denied it either, lover boy." Inuyasha peeled an eye open at his half-brother, eyes raking over his exasperated features drawn out through his temper. _'Hmph. It's been a few weeks and already he looks like me when he's mad. Or has he always been that way?' _

"A-ANYWAY," Ranma snatched up his puppy. "At least MY dog is good-hearted. Ditzy's just the Devil hound from hell who apparently hates me because he's mistaken me for Jesus!"

"Show some respect and don't hurt Jesus's feelings." Inuyasha's eyes rolled. "And his name's DITZER. 'Sides, yours likes to take big chunks out of everyone who even looks at him. Must take after you, RAMEN."

"You must love me LOTS to be nicknaming me after your beloved food, Dog-boy." Ranma cooed playfully.

"Oh do you ever shut UP?" Inuyasha growled, stomping off with his black hair brushing the edges of his ankles with every swishing sway.

Ranma cocked his head as he sat on the floor, flinching in sync with the sudden slamming of the door of Inuyasha's bedroom. He stared at the white of rectangular exit before sighing out a puff of aggravated guilt. "…Damn it."

Pooch whimpered as he waited patiently in the kitchen for his master.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Inuyasha rested his back against his bed, straightening out the wrinkles in his oversized red hoodie before reaching over for a photo album. _'Damn Ranma...I hate brothers; I've got enough of Sesshomaru, but now this whiny runt? What was my mother thinking...? More or less, what was FATHER thinking?!' _

Ditzer, the white wolf-dog with one amber eye and one indigo, curled up at his bedside.

_'That old hound just about take in any stray mutt off the streets, won't he? All that Ranma-idiot does is get in my way...'_ Inuyasha squinted in a sour feeling as he turned the pages of the album of pictures, landing upon one specific. The frame of the photograph boxed the angelically smiling face of a raven-haired female, her eyes a tendered cerulean and mane a wavy onyx-black.

"Yo, Inu!" Ranma barged in, Pooch in his arm. "Let's just forget that whole thing back there, okay? Truce?"

"Who said you could come paradin' into my room? Get out." Inuyasha retorted under his breath, still flipping through the album. "I'm in a bad mood, so stay outta my way."

"Oh I'm so scared I think I tinkled in my diaper!" Ranma teased while plunking down on the bed's end, careless of the empty threat. "Lighten up, will ya? Stay frosty! I'm sure your girlfriend wouldn't want to see you with such an ugly face—" the photo album kissed his face instead.

"Shut up, lecher." Inuyasha flushed, his muscles tightening. "I can't stand the wench."

"What the hell was THAT for—Wha…?" Ranma almost immediately dove his face between the pages of the photo book. "…So…_cute._"

"Huh?" Inuyasha's eyes nearly shot out from his sockets.

"So…cute! So cute! So cute! So _CUTE!_" Ranma's braid danced excitedly against his masculine back as his shoulders trembled with excitement.

"GIVE me THAT!" Inuyasha snatched the book away.

"Is that KAGOME?" Ranma crawled over to him, an eager and disturbing light banning around his orbs.

"What OF it?!" Inuyasha held the album from his reach protectively, snarling animalistically.

"Set me up on a date with her!"

"…"

"C'mon, Inuyasha! Help a 'brother' out—LAH!" Ranma squeaked as he was unexpectedlyly jerked up to Inuyasha's face. A few dribbles of sweat leaked off his face.

The lines upon the older half-brother's forehead were now more evident than before. "**_Forget _**it, you bastard! If you come within five feet of Kagome I'll gut you like a Thanksgiving TURKEY and feed you to Ditzer!"

Ditzer just yawned.

Inuyasha expected the boy to be begging for mercy by now, but instead, cringed to find him exploding with a denotation of laughter. "And just what is so funny, Ranma?!"

"So you DO like her!" Ranma pushed Inuyasha away to maintain the strained muscles in his stomach from the laughter, wiping away a tear from his eyelash. "Otherwise you wouldn't get so JEALOUS, now wouldja?"

"Jealous?!" Inuyasha echoed.

"What, you thought I was serious about dating 'er? You really are one corner short of a pentagon, Inu! Sure, she's _CUTE_, but I ain't even met her yet! If she's an incarnation of Akane like you say, then why on earth would I want HER?" Ranma thumbed his nose, grinning.

"…Hey…Ranma?" Inuyasha's tone was frighteningly delicate.

"Uh," Ranma, catching the crum of suspiciousness, cautiously rotated his head to his half-brother. "Y...Yeah?"

A pillow smack-dad hit him in the mouth, causing him to tumble off the bed and onto Ditzer.

Inuyasha sighed and reached out for his cellphone while his half breed pet chased his half-brother around on a berserker rampage.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Hello?" A raven-haired girl picked up her pink cellular. "Oh, hey Inuyasha! What's up?" A leery expression homed in on her face. "…Something wrong? You don't usually call me unless it's about a test or something stupid."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Keh," Inuyasha sprinted his eyes over to the direction of his opened bedroom door, listening on his half-brother's yowls. "Ever think that maybe I'm calling to make sure you're still breathing, you ungrateful wench?"

_"I'm still…wait, what?! What's THAT supposed to mean?!"_

"It means that whenever I'm not with you something ALWAYS happens! I can't turn my back on you for a second!"

_"Well if _THAT'S_ how you feel then just stop protecting me already! I'm not your responsibility! No one put you up to the 'task'!"_

"…" Inuyahsa's eyes gleamed with defeat. "Keh."

On the other side of Inuyasha's bedroom wall, Ranma and Ditzer had their ears pinned to the thin barrier to eavesdrop.

"That her he talking to?" Ranma asked the wolf dog, who wheezed a hoarse response.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Anyway, what are you REALLY calling for?" Kagome puffed up her cheeks, eating back her temper as best she could while gripping onto the cellphone.

_"Because I wanna talk to you…"_

Kagome's blue-black hair stood on end at the sincerity that buckled his voice. Her heart rushed like a mad river current. "…R…Really?"

_"'Course not, stupid! I'm bored!"_

Kagome's face dreaded a cold facial expression. "Ha…ha."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"It's true, Kagome! Miroku's out with Sango, remember? She lost their little bet they made on us."

_"Oh yeah…"_

Inuyasha imagined a daydreaming look plastered on Kagome's naïve face in reflection of that stupid kiss their friends tried to set them up on.

"Anyway, no one's home except for Ranma…"

_"Ranma? Who's that?"_

"Oh? I didn't tell you? Huh…musta forgot about the idiot. He's barely worth mentioning."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"That JERK!" Ranma's cheeks strained a red complexion. "It's been weeks and he hadn't even MENTIONED me to his friends yet?!" He quieted himself quickly when he heard his half-brother continue.

"He's my mother's pup, apparently."

"…Pup?" Ranma exchanged weariness with Ditzer.

"After my parents got divorced, I guess she moved onto a different 'type' of husband if you catch my drift. Ranma's father had disappeared after my mother's death, I think. I don't know if he's dead or just left him behind, since the bastard won't tell me, but he's living with us now."

Ranma's ribcage squeezed on the muscles of his heart. He jerked a bit, hand to his breast where it had hurt the most.

His father...

"Yeah, he's a year younger than me. Just sixteen. He's arrogant, full of it, hotheaded, annoying, mentally-retarded, and...Ah-huh…ah-huh…ah--WHAT?! Meet him?! Why do you want to MEET him?!"

Ranma recovered from his clenching pain that he thought he had left back at the Dojo. He glimpsed at the wall again. "She wants to meet me…?" A fox-like grin cradled his lips. "Hmmm..."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Because he's your brother, duh!" Kagome rolled her eyes at Inuyasha's shrewd attitude. "Oh I swear..."

_"HALF-brother. And so?"_

"How about we all go out to Fat Burger tomorrow afternoon?"

_"Well…"_

"Come on, Inuyasha. Don't be a jerk about this."

_"HEY! I'm not the one being a jerk!"_

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_"Oh yes you are!"_

Inuyasha growled over the other line, practically shouting into the phone. "Am NOT!"

"YO INUYASHA!" Ranma scuttled into the bedroom again before robbing the cellular from him, beaming from ear to ear into it. "Hey, this Kagome? Aw man, Inuyasha talks about you all the time! Yeah, he always says how un-cute you are and that you're such a total ditz—"

"RAMEN." Inuyasha pounded Ranma's face into the floor before retrieving his phone in a paniced manner. "L-Look, four o'clock tomorrow, alrighty Kagome?"

_"Okay…"_ Suprisingly, she sounded unfazed by Ranma's earlier claims. _"You know, your half-brother sounds a lot like you. Does he look like you too?"_

"Yeaaah a little, ANYWAY, I've got some business to take care of so we'll just continue all this tomorrow, BYE!" Inuyasha ended the call rather hastily with an exhausted sigh.

"So…" Ranma perched his chin up by the backs of his palms femininely. "We're both goin' on a date with your wittle cute girlfriend, huh? Does InuTaisho know about--…wait…wh-what are you gonna do with that old beat up sword? Inuyasha? Inu-YA-sha!"

A tormented scream bounced off the roofs of the neighborhood.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Huh…how strange. Didn't he just say he was bored?" Kagome twirled a finger around a curl of her well-combed tresses. "I wonder what Inuyasha's half-brother looks like."

The handsome picture of Inuyasha's velvety black hair and rough yet smooth facial structure danced around in her mind's haunted thoughts.

She broke out into an inwardly-giggling smile. "Probably handsome, I bet. Especially if he's from Inuyasha's mother."

Buyo lazily flexed his clawed paws before slugging over to Kagome's bed.

"Ah, that's right!" Kagome's fingers snapped.

Buyo watched as she hurriedly dialed an important number into her cellular. His owner hoisted it to her.

Kagome tucked a hair strand back behind the rim of her ear. "Hey, you. Mmhm, it's me. So, are…you still coming over next weekend?" she teased, hand in her rosy cheek.

_"Of course, Kagome."_ A cherry tone on the other end replied smilingly. _"Just hope Sota isn't annoying you too much."_

Kagome's smile dithered a little. "Not too much, anyway."

There was a strangling pause.

_"…Sota has Dad's eyes, right?"_

"Mm, no." Kagome made a cute noise between a snort and sigh. "He's got my mom's eyes and dad's hair."

_"O-Oh! Right, right…of…of course."_

"S...So, have you been alright since—"

_"I've been fine."_ The voice came curt yet sorrow-filled.

Kagome's chest deflated.

_"Really, Kagome," _the feminine character's tone tried to smile again. _"Everything's been a bit depressing around here, but we're getting over it. It's been a month and almost two, now. So…enough about me, what about you and Inuyasha?"_

"Keh!" Kagome mocked her companion unintentionally. "That jerk's been jerkier than usual these days! Ever since his half-brother moved in—"

_"Oh Kagome, you sound just like him from what you've been telling me about the guy."_

"…I-I do? Ooooh! That's what I get for spending all summer with him!"

_"No, that's what you get for falling in love with him."_

"I'll just pretend I didn't hear that."

Pause.

"_Heh…it's kinda strange, isn't it, Kagome?"_

Kagome blinked underneath her feathering bangs. "What's strange?"

_"That all this time, we hadn't known we were related until father came out with it after…after…well, you understand what I'm getting at. It put some happiness in my life."_

"Hmm…" Kagome's feelings fuzzed over with warmth. "Do one thing for me, okay?"

_"What's that, Kagome?"_

"Bring P-Chan when you come over next weekend."


	2. Adaptation

_**Chapter:** "**Adaptation"**_

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Hmph..."

Inuyasha stood in the face of his body mirror, bare-chested. He glanced between the two outfits he held at his collarbone. "Red hoodie or WHITE hoodie?"

The handsome black-haired teen scowled in campaigning as he closed his eyes shut, mulling. "Hmm..."

Today was the day. It had been an hour ago since he had called Kagome, too. Definitely not the best hour of his life:

_"What are you trying to rush me off the phone for, Ka-_go_-me?" Inuyasha woofed over the cellphone, nearly destroying it between his strengthening grip and Kagome's hearing along with it._

_"I'm not trying to rush you off! I just have to go, okay? Don't worry, I'm coming to our meet-up today," Kagome reassured him as sweetly as she could under her intolerance. _

_Inuyasha, as usual, was ignoring her promises, "Oh yeah? Then who's that in the background singing to you?! Is that KOGA? I shoulda known - with you trying to boot me off the phone and all just to go kiss up on that wimpy wolf! I thought you were above all that!" _

_"NO, you _JERK_!" Kagome's horns shown on the other end of the line. "I'm listening to Stevie WONDER!" _

_"Y...Yeah?!"_

_"YEAH!"_

_"YEAH?!"_

_"YEAH!"_

_"Well...well are you kissin' up on Stevie Wonder too to avoid me now?! ...U-Uh, Kagome? You still there...? Kago-KAGOME!"_

Inuyasha sweat dropped. Definitely not his finest hour.

"Hey, Inu!"

He just about jumped ten feet out of his skin before training his frenzied snarl on Ranma. "Haven't you ever heard of KNOCKING?!"

Ranma only grinned before sauntering up into the bedroom, unannounced. He offered himself a seat across the older half-sibling's mattress.

"Hey, what's up with Kagome--"

"DAMN, would you just stop already?! We're just friends! I DON'T like her! Me and Kagome, that's just...it's just SICK!"

"...Yeah man, that's beautiful, HONESTLY but," Ranma stared. "I was just asking if she was still coming today."

"U-Uh..." Inuyasha blinked, feeling the heat of stupidity in every bone of his body. "R-Right, she...yeah, course she's comin'!" he put his sights back down on his clothes.

"...So, tryin' on stuff for your wittle girlfriend today?" Ranma NOW teased him.

Without much warning, Inuyasha impatiently booted him in the jaw.

"ARGH, Gawd! That...that hurt!" He held his jawbone, tears crammed in the corners of his eyes. "Alright THAT'S it!" Ranma hopped into a fighting standpoint. "I've had enough of your abuse, you creep! So let's go, PAL! Me and you! Right here, right now!"

"Quit your whinin'," Inuyasha was too engaged to his mirror at the time. "I'll play with you later, ya' big baby."

Ranma blinked dimly and then bared his teeth to urn back his frustration. "Inu-YA-sha!"

"Where the hell's your pacificer when you need it?" His eyebrow convulsed, his eyes never facing him.

Ranma immediately charged for the aggravated Inuyasha with his naked feet hammering the floor in hard strides. His strapping leg whipped out to punt his opponent upside the head, but his half-brother caught it effortlessly. Ranma smirked and kicked off the onyx-haired teen's temple to somersault a safe distance away. He alighted back on the floor with a 'thud' and re-positioned himself to a martial arts pose, cockily beckoning his half-brother with a finger.

Inuyasha massaged his abused temple, wrinkles lining his brow now. "Cut it OUT, Ranma, or else I'll accidentally have to KILL you." He menaced, now body-facing the one inch-shorter male.

"HA, that'll be the day, Dog-boy." Ranma thumbed his nose in self-righteousness.

Inuyasha's mane spiked as he flexed and cracked his fingers as if he had claws. "You wanna take me up on that again, you spoiled little brat?"

Ranma simply half-grinned and crossed his arms, mocking, "KEH."

There was a hush in the room that added even more spice to Inuyasha's boiling temper.

"You're not seriously gonna wear one of THOSE are you?" Ranma nudged his head to the hoodies his half-brother had dumped on the floor.

Inuyasha blinked, forgetting all about his previous antagonism. He held up the sweat shirts with an expectant look, "Uh, YEAH," he reminded dryly.

"You're going on a date with a pretty girl and you're planning to horrify her with not only your funk, but your over-sized hoodies as well? Geez you're pathetic," Ranma slapped his palm against his forehead pityingly, yet smirked in between. "You need more help than I thought."

"Wha...well you're one to talk!" Inuyasha pointed desperately at his half-brother, hair flinging in a massive wave of thickness. "You dress like the nutcracker every damn day!"

"...Is that the best you can come up with? You are one SAD little man."

"Urgh! LOOK, you insufferable bastard! It's not like I care what that wench thinks!"

"Then why would you be struggling to pick over stupid hoodies?" Ranma sighed, staring rather hard at the half-nude man in front of him. "Why don't you wear something a little more loose or TIGHT?"

"Keh, no thanks." Inuyasha swerved his head away inconsiderately.

"C'mon, 'BRO', I'm trying to help you out here. Those baggy clothes make you look lanky when you're not. I'm sure Kagome gets tried of seeing you like THAT every day."

"Shut up and butt out!" Inuyasha flushed a highlighted red of embarrassment, glaring at his wiggling toes.

"...Fine. Do whatever you want, but if she complains why you can't be more like me then don't come cryin' to moi." Ranma shrugged, folding his arms behind his head and whistling off until he exited the hallway.

Inuyasha pouted at the closed door, brow twitching by means of reheated annoyance. "I really hate him..."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Where the hell IS she?"

"Stop pacing, wouldja? You're driving me CRAZY!"

Inuyasha, dressed in a baggy beige long-sleeved jacket, paced back and forth along the sidewalk. His hair was once again bristling in the midst of brewing impatience.

"You're as insane as it gets, don't worry," Ranma's half-brother barked, eyes half-lidded. "Grah, this stupid girl is always late! Why can't she ever follow a time schedule for once in her life?"

"Shesh, take a breather," Ranma muffled a yawn. "She's only two minutes late."

"Oh so now you're on her side too? I shoulda known--"

"INUYASHA!"

Both brothers arched their heads to the earsplitting shriek from down the road.

It was surely Kagome running up to them, in her flaring white jeans, pink tank top and animated black curls.

"Hmm!" Ranma peeked his head out in Inuyasha's way, waggling his eyebrows with judgement. "Not bad, not bad! Nice going, Inn! She looks even better than the picture! Who knew you could attract PRETTY girls let alone girls in general?"

Inuyasha restrained himself from striking the Curious-George. Instead, he steadied that bile on Kagome, "About time! What took you so long, wench?"

Kagome, at first smothered him with an annoyed glower of her own, but then folded her arms. "What you talkin' bout, 'Yasha?"

"Ha ha," Inuyasha drawled, bending down to her level quite directly. "You're a real hoot, really. But because of your little tardiness your detention will be paying for our burgers."

Just as Kagome was equipping herself to snap, Ranma stepped in between the two, clearing his throat.

"Ladies, ladies," he shot a mocking eye at Inuyasha. "There's no need to ruffle up your hair over some petty little thing like this, now is there?"

Kagome blinked widely at the masculinely striking stranger who took her delicate fingers in his hand.

"I'M Ranma, the GOOD-looking brother." He introduced, grinning stupidly even after earning a lump on the head from Inuyasha.

"Oh, okay! I see it now!" Kagome smiled for him, shaking that hand. "Nice to actually meet you! Wow, you really do kinda look like Inuyasha..."

Inuyasha huffed, Ranma scoffed.

"Inuyasha, he's so CUTE," Kagome whispered to him, giggling.

Inuyasha's eyelid shuddered as he sneered down on her. "What, you expecting a dreamy little squeal from me in response?"

"Oh you're impossible!" Kagome hissed and then turned back to the 'polite' Ranma. "So, shall we?"

They made their entrance into the burger restaurant, Inuyasha exaggeratedly lagging behind the two. He hadn't been all that upbeat before, but witnessing Kagome and Ranma hit it off so well was making his intestines rot.

Kagome picked out the booth that aligned to the large window.

Inuyasha sat himself down, already in action to grab Ranma to sit at his side before Kagome could. However, to his unanswered surprise, the raven-haired fifteen year old slid into the other end of the booth to be seated by Ranma. At this, Ranma smirked at his jaw slacked half-brother.

Kagome ordered the largest of the meals. As if trying to top her, Ranma would order the same amount if not more.

"You two done molesting my wallet?" Inuyasha carped. "How'd I get stuck with paying for your crap anyway?"

"Generosity, Inuyasha," Kagome tittered.

Five burgers later, Kagome addressed to Ranma this time, "You know you're a lot different than your half-brother, besides looking alike. You're not as rough around the edges of your personality."

Kagome ignored the knives being glared into the back of her head. If looks could kill Inuyasha would be her murderer.

"Well my friend, that's because I'm a one of a kind kinda guy," Ranma nicked off bits of cheese from the emptied plate. "So...tell me about you and Inu. There anything going on between the two of you I should know abou--"

Inuyasha kicked him under the table, causing the plates to rattle and clank.

"No," Kagome justified.

Ranma couldn't help but pick up on the low notes of disappointment clasped around her voice. He gave her a side-glance of niggling curiosity.

"...Right," Ranma assembled._ 'How do girls like her like jerks like him?' _

Ranma suddenly sweat dropped to himself to replay Ryoga's two-month-old-question: _"How do girls like AKANE like jerks like YOU, Ranma?!"_

Inuyasha was no fool either. He wondered why the raven-haired girl didn't thwack him for rudely ramming his foot up Ranma's shin.

"Anyway, when'd you arrive here?" Kagome suddenly perked up, staggering them both.

Ranma rubbed the back of his scalp. "U-uh, well, not too long ago actually. What, about three weeks ago?"

"Do you like it here?"

"Well...it's okay, I guess. I mean, the women here are cute," he obviously implied this to Kagome without truly looking at her. "But it's a bit boring..."

"Sometimes I wish Naraku was still around," Inuyasha mumbled thoughtlessly into the palm that roosted up his chin.

"Don't even, Inuyasha!" Kagome commanded.

Both boys looked to her with uncanny shock before Inuyasha squabbled back at her while thrusting his body forward, "What're you gettin' all mad about? All I said was--"

"And I'm telling you not to jinx it. You know how hard Naraku was to get rid of? We defeated him with chance!"

"'We'? _I_ was the one who--"

"Don't kid yourself. We ALL did it as a TEAM. Why do you always butt us out of everything?!"

By now, Ranma was busy being bored. _'Whatever the heck they're talking about is beyond me.'_

"Even Izaoyi told you--"

The coke drinks and plates crashed to the floors in a clash of catastrophic mess. A waitress stood bold-legged over the disarray splattered in her pathway, stupefied face drawing up to the troublemaker of it all.

Ranma and Kagome, who had moved a bit closer to one another, raised their stares up at the trembling Inuyasha who gripped the paint off the table under his fingernails.

His arms were shaking wrathfully and his head was dipped in a muddle of stringy bangs that now feathered his eyes. All the two could make out was the grating of his gnashed teeth.

Literally everyone had stopped their grubbing to flog their heads around to the green booth adjacent to the window.

"Don't _ever_," Inuyasha's lethal eye shone from between the tuft of black strands. "Mention her name again. Not in front of me. Not now, not **EVER**."

Kagome only stared at Inuyasha, bug-eyed of alarm, lips parted of misunderstanding and face complexion the slightest of colorless pastel. "Inu...yasha?"

Quickly the face of Ranma went dour. The boy with the short-braid was on his feet, the heel of his boot kicking the table.

"**HEY**," he bellowed, matching up to Inuyasha's irrational temper. "Don't act like you're the only one who lost MOTHER, you cold-blooded creep! Don't act like you're the only one suffering! You don't see me taking it out on Kagome just because I'm a victim to the pain! Why don't you think before you open that big trap of--"

"Ranma!" Kagome wailed.

Ranma's face whisked around to the right, a bruise dimpled in his cheek.

A series of hoots and winches came from the crowd.

He stood there quietly in his punched-pose, orbs shuddering as he tried to take in what just happened.

"Inuyasha, STOP!" Kagome shot up next, _SLAMMING_ the table. "There's no need to FIGHT over something this--"

"This WHAT? This 'insignificant'?!" Inuyasha's flames directed on her again. "My mother is NOT insignificant, wench! Carve that onto your puny little skull to get it THROUGH!"

A vein appeared on Kagome's temple.

Unbelievably, Inuyasha's hatred sunk like the Titanic. His expression substituted to a look of dreadfulness. "U-Uh...Ka-Kagome?"

"SIT, boy!"

"OOF!"

_Thud._

Ranma blinked at the boy bounded to the ground, nursing his cheek and sweat dropping.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"A rosary?"

"My grandpa gave it to me. He said it was passed down from my ancestor Kikyo and her sister, Kaede."

Inuyasha fidgeted and tensed uncomfortably in time with the mentioned names. Ranma noticed, but decided he'd ask about that little tibit later.

"Okay, I got cha'. But...mind me asking WHY it's on him in the first place?" Ranma tugged at the beaded necklace sealed around Inuyasha's neck.

After being kicked out, the three sat on the benches outside the restaurant.

"So she can TORTURE me until I die," Inuyasha shot a mean stare at Kagome who chuckled tensely.

"What, like you own him?" Ranma snickered at his idea. "Aww, does it come with a wittle leash too?"

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed. He spun around and displayed a balled fist to Ranma in forebod. "You want a knuckle sandwich or do you just wanna die instead?"

"Inu-YA-sha," Kagome counseled.

"C'mon, I'm just horsin' around, Inn! It suits you, y'know?"

"...You're just ASKING for it, aren't you, RAMEN?!"

"Oh yeah?! You wanna go, yeah?! You wanna go?!" Ranma budged his face into Inuyasha's, rolling up his green sleeves.

The two stopped quarreling at the tinkle of Kagome's slow laughter.

"Hm?" they questioned together, giving her twin looks. "What's so _funny_?!"

"Oh nothing," Kagome chimed. "It's just that it's so cute to see two brothers give each other pet names."

Ranma and Inuyasha exchanged screwed-up faces before facing their backs to one another.

"Keh!"

"Hmph!"

"So Ranma," Kagome tore in. "Is there a girl back home?"

"Girl...back...home?" Ranma curled his lip. "Um, w-well, uh, let's see here," he itched at his cheek again with his nail, voice cracking. "S-Sorta...four, actually."

"FOUR?" Inuyasha and Kagome recurred.

"Yeah, four. I don't want any of them, either."

"Oh you can't mean that!" Kagome leaned back into the bench. "Not even one of them you're interested in?"

A hazy picture of a short-haired girl owning a duo of seaweed green eyes sketched out in Ranma's imagination.

His skin paled and a vale of red stretched over the bridge of his nose. "U-Uhh..."

"Keh, he's got it bad for one of 'em," Inuyasha butted in. "He won't shut up about her, either."

"Oh?" Kagome's eyes twinkled in an innocuous eagerness. "What's her name?"

"It's Ak--"

"PARDON me for interrupting, 'BRO'!" Ranma yanked on Inuyasha's black forelock of hair. "But I don't recall your name being RANMA."

"HEY! Watch the hair, watch the HAIR!" Wolfishly, Inuyasha got a nasty idea. "How'd you like it if I pulled on YOURS?!"

Ranma shrieked a high-pitched shril as his half-brother tugged on his braid. "YOUCH, THAT HURTS! Lemme GO, you moron!"

"Not until you let ME go!" Inuyasha ragged, feeling Ranma only tether harder.

"Oh come off it you two," sighed Kagome. "Ranma, you didn't get to tell me what this girl was like."

"Nosy much, Kagome?" Inuyasha insulted through gritted jealousy, only getting his head ducked down by Ranma.

Ranma ignored Inuyasha's stifled swears as he just continued grinning like a clueless riot. "First off, she's UN-cute, UN-sexy, her cooking is garbage, she's as violent as a gorilla, built like a brick and a total tom boy!"

"Um...wow. Sounds like love, aha!" Kagome sweat dropped, smile trembling. _'Why's all that sound familiar...?'_

"Hmph," Ranma crossed his burly arms, huffing the bulge of bangs out of his violet eyes. "I do kinda miss the tomboy, though." He seemed to soften into a little something Kagome thought as sadness.

She didn't press anymore after that and neither did Inuyasha.

Kagome looked at the sky. It was getting dark.

"So love birds, what else should we do? All we've done is eat burgers and talk about..."

"You," Inuyasha rolled his eyes at Ranma.

"Don't hate me cause you ain't me," Ranma linked his arms over a bulked chest, Inuyasha finding his face on the receiving end of Ranma's shoe.

"How about you go and get us some drinks, twerp?" Inuyasha did his customary growl after shoving the boot out of his face, nudging a thumb to the restaurant's window.

"We just got kicked out!"

"You're a snake-charmer, aren't you, pretty boy?" Inuyasha grabbed him up in a headlock, giving him a harsh noogie. "So go charm one of them snakes!" he pushed his half-brother toward the door.

"Yeah alright, whatever. I'll do it, but ONLY because Kagome needs her drink too." Ranma slicked back his bangs just to have them bounce outright again.

When he left, all but the busy street echoed as a conversation.

"He's nice." Kagome awkwardly remarked.

"Feh."

Silence.

"Did you notice the look in his eyes?" Kagome started again.

"Come again?" Inuyasha picked off scraps of lent from his trousers.

"Ranma; I said did you notice the look in his eyes? They seemed...sad. Like they were just talking with brief misery."

"Yeah?" Inuyasha responded distantly. "Whose eyes were talking?"

"RANMA'S! I meant the sadness that he tried to guard from us!" Kagome talked in between lines of fake patience.

"Sadness?" If Inuyasha had a dog ear at the moment, it would've flagged in reply to the information. "What sadness?"

"When he was talking about that girl..."

"Oh, that." Inuyasha turned sour and unconcerned now. "Yeah, he gets like that sometimes when she's mentioned."

"Who is she...?"

"An ex-fiancee."

"Fi..ancee?"

Inuyasha's nose crinkled at the way she restated him. "Is there an echo on this street? Yeah, FI-AN-CEE."

"I heard you, okay!"

For some reason, Kagome was just a bit more bothered by the fact that he didn't even leap at the chance to bite back. The dragged out pause was hurting her eardrums.

"Do you like him?" Inuyasha stage-whispered.

"What?"

"Do you LIKE him?"

"Yeah, of course."

Pause.

Fidget, fidget.

"How much?"

Kagome eyed him weirdly, "A lot."

Pause.

Twitch, twitch.

"...Do you like him more than me?"

Kagome had to hook herself form flinching. Shards of rime-white spanked against the crystal cerulean of her eyes to illustrate the thoughts skating across her mind at high velocity.

The busy bustling of the city was little by little tuned out of their hearing.

"...Kagome...?"

This time, she did jerk.

"Do you lke him better than me?" Inuyasha rasped barely above a heartrending whisper.

A cherry blossom briefly blocked her vision of the hazy streets in a feather of pink.

The lights that weaved in the teenaged boy's eye quivered even more viciously. He fisted his pants leg. Right before he could growl, a warm touch hugged over his fingers; Kagome's. He stared into nowhere ahead, orbs dilated, breath suffocated.

"I like you just the way you are," Kagome endorsed, her eyes gazing down on her slender legs. "No one can take your place, Inuyasha. After all...there is only one Inuyasha."

A belated petal of a cherry blossom whispered earthwards, landing right on their interlocked hands.

"Ka...gome," Inuyasha voice vibrated with uncertainty, but appreciation.

Kagome stole a glance of him, this time smiling. Inuyasha on the other hand, still had the profile of his face bowed with loose twines of black hair falling into his eyes and resting upon his brawny torso. The shedding of illumination that flickered in the corner of his iris brightened with every tremor.

Progressively he rose to glimpse at her, hair flinching back at the movement.

"Thanks," he smiled simply.

It was thin and vague, but it was there.

"Inuyasha," Kagome's cheeks were heavy with rushing blood as she beamed wider.

The rays of the sun bloomed down on them, a wind tickling the scalp of their manes.

"So...should I come back another time or leave you two to stare wordlessly into each other's eyes until tomorrow morning?"

Kagome jumped at Ranma's sneaky interruption and Inuyasha grunted.

"Why don't you go lose yourself in the park on purpose and never come back?" The older brother insisted more than suggested. "Trust me, MY world would be a better place!"

"Would you give it a rest already? Shesh." Ranma handed them their lemonades.

"Thank you," Kagome nodded, allowing Ranma to sit on her left.

For the rest of the day the three spent time wandering town. Once again Inuyasha was the one tagging behind, going unnoticed while Kagome gave Ranma the little tours. When they had arrived at the Higuarshi Shrine, they were greeted by Kagome's old grandfather.

"Grandpa, stop attacking Inuyasha!" Kagome rounded on the elder crounched in front of her as she stood between him and the black-haired Inuyasha.

Despite Inuyasha's grudging desire to jump at the old man, he remained frighteningly silent behind Kagome, while Ranma just blinked.

"Hey, what's going on?" Ranma mumbled a little over the hedge of his half-brother's shoulder, who uttered not a word.

"I was only doing him a favor and ridding the demon from within him so he can be FULL human like the rest of us! That is what he wishes, does he not?" Kagome's short grandfather fanned his holy papers, some fluttering to the floor from the previous forced ritual.

"Demon?" Ranma's lips slouched. "Huh...must be talking about his bad-tempered, mean side." He nevertheless snatched the opportunity to peek at his brother, catching the zealed intensity of Inuyasha's eyes. An intensity that had been foreign to him for the past three weeks.

As the time in Kagome's household increased, so did Inuyasha's outrage.

Sota was paying more attention to Ranma than he was to him! Giving him stupid little admirer comments he usually gave to Inuyasha. For the first time in his life, he hated his current solitary status...

"I'm going out back," Inuyasha muttered under his breath.

"Okay then," Kagome's voice sounded tickled in the back when she half-replied to Inuyasha.

He rolled his eyes as she laughed at Ranma's jokes. He soon disappeared down the hallway, fists quavering at his hips. "Why I outta tie that bastard to the ceiling fan when we get home."

"I have to admit, you're a pretty cool girl," Ranma complimented at the same time as he plopped down on her bedside. "I've met tomboys, master chefs, cheerleaders and amazoness-lunatics, but I've never met someone with a family line of prietess. Kinda makes you believe in that whole feudal era of demons and whatnot."

"You're a pretty fun guy yourself, Ranma," Kagome crossed her legs while she sat on the carpet's kinky curls. "Inuyasha over exaggerated when he was describing you over the phone."

"Same here," he chuckled sheepishly.

There was a bit of unwavering stillness between the two as Kagome combed out her black waves, Ranma watching quietly. More daylight seemed to spill into the blue that traced around the black of her hair.

"...Huh..." A casually interested sound slid out from between Ranma's lips.

When she felt the strange gaze upon her, she cocked her head at him, "Something wrong over there...?"

"D-Dah?!" Ranma flushed from sheer embarrassment, flinging his hands about. "N--No! Course not! Aha! Nothing's wrong, n-nothing at al!"

"If you say so," Kagome ran her fingers through her strands beside the following brush.

"So uh," Ranma twiddled his thumbs on his lap, trying to dismiss the earlier little scene. "How long have you known my half-brother, exactly?"

"Three years," she replied without shilly-shallying.

"Holy cow, are you serious?" Ranma voiced laughingly. "No wonder he's got the hots for you!"

"The...hots?" Kagome's tone squeaked, a few rows of blush plastered to her complexion.

"Well yeah, can't ya' tell?"

"No," Kagome looked down in clues of innocence. "I mean he gets jealous sometimes, but..."

"He's an alright kinda guy...sorta...I guess," Ranma continued, trying to hunt for evidence of her feelings towards Inuyasha. "I mean, he never cuts that stupid long hair-do and he always wears the baggiest clothes, he's got a temper, he's rude, he's an idiot, selfish, a total jerk," he seemed to sing-song the list away.

"I know, I know," Kagome warped a hair of black around her finger. "But...Inuyasha's a very remarkable person. Everything he does, from the way he moves, talks, to the way he looks, just screams that he's hiding a lot behind those exteriors."

Ranma blinked once, twice, a practical three times. He never thought about it that way! "Hey, you're right...he's like the type of guy who's only lover is DENIAL."

"That too," she muffled back her snigger behind a hand.

Ranma smiled at the detail of her closed eyes and bubbly smile._ 'I coulda sworn that was Akane for a second.'_

"_Ranma_?"

Ranma shivered subtly as the voice of his ex-fiancee rung through his temples. "U-Uh?"

When he looked down, he only saw Kagome.

"Inuyasha never told me why you moved in. I mean, I know who TOLD you to, but...why?"

"Oh yeah, well..." Ranma folded his legs in, hands on his knees. "Mother wanted me to meet my half-brother, I guess. She made me promise this mission to 'mend' his heart because it was something that she never got the chance to do after putting him off for so long. But I don't see what's wrong with it; he just seems like your average jerk."

A melancholy glittered on Kagome's gaze. She stood up, wispy strands of raven-black slithering off her shoulder blades. "No, Ranma," she corrected while taking a few enclosing steps to her desk, picking up a photo. "Inuyasha has a lot weighing down on his heart. He tries to hide it so no one can find that little bit of evidence, but he's been hurting ever since birth. I'm shocked that after all he's been through, he's not dark-hearted. He needs more mending than just a few stitches."

Ranma's big eyes blinked nonstop. How much could a guy learn in one day?

"He's just...a beautiful disaster, that's all. He has his faults, but he also has a good heart," Kagome's fingers touched her cheek like she needed a dam to stop any rivers of expecting tears. "That's why I'll always be at his side and have to stay there, no matter what happens between us. I can't abandon him, even if I wanted to."

"...Well if you're so devoted, then what's the point of having me here? I could go back home!"

The raven-haired girl gave him a sideways stare that minted so much emotion, it made his innards tether. A milky way of dedication and desperation spiraled behind those eyes. "Because he needs all the help, love and support he can get. He needs to know that people love him."

Inuyasha finally gathered himself up to face the two now. He would maim his younger half-brother for all this later. Just as he was about to barge in, he heard the conversation unfurl:

"Hey, do you mind...if I get your number?"

"My number?"

"Yeah! I mean, just to call you sometime? Just in case I need some help with it...? I'm a big boy, I can take care of it myself and all, but if it gets hard, I could really use your help, Kagome."

Inuyasha's burning face practically EXPLODED. _'What the _**HELL**_?!' _

"Sure, Ranma! I'm always glad to help someone out when they're in need! I know how big of a deal it can be to get Inuyasha to--"

"Ran-MAAA!" Inuyasha marched up to them after bursting through the door, a vein clutching the flesh of his forehead. "Just what in the _hell _do you think you're DOING?!"

"Huh?" Both Kagome and Ranma remainded dumbfounded, both palpably sitting face to face on the floor.

"URGH, that's it! I'll deal with you at HOME! C'mon!" Inuyasha dragged him away from Kagome by the pigtail braid.

"Just what the heck did I DO?! And why do we gotta leave so SOON?!"

"Because the old HOUND wants us back!"

"STOP RIGHT THERE."

Both brothers flung their attention on Kagome, both looking caught in the headlights.

Kagome stomped over, glaring at Inuyasha who instinctively dropped Ranma.

"I didn't get to thank you two."

Inuyasha's lip twitched. _'Y-You mean...she's not gonna 'sit' me?' _He suddenly threw his hands over his head, a concluding tear cornered in his widened eye. _'AH! Oh no, it must be a TRAP!'_

All his fretfulness was left behind in vain as Kagome pecked his cheek as well as Ranma's.

Ranma's chest inflated to match the shyness of pink grazing over his cheeks whilst his braid arched high in the air. Inuyasha's entirely red face released a puff of steam, his thick hair frizzed on end.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"So she said, 'What's the pro-blem, Ba-by?' What's the problem? Well I dunno, well, maybe I'm in love!"

On the way home, all Ranma had been doing was singing stupid love-songs. In the beginning, he tried to get Inuyasha to answer questions on this Naraku-fellow and his eerie but silent response to Kikyo and Kaede's names, but Inuyasha's lips were sealed by a good postal stamp. So this was torture, probably...

"FOUR words, Ranma. FOUR, FREAKIN' words." Inuyasha counted the words on his fingers, "Shut. The. Fuck. UP."

"C'mon, c'mon, tuuuurn a little faster," Ranma wiggled his little bum, his voice at Inuyasha's eardrum. "C'mon, c'mon, mooove a little closer! C'mon, c'mon, I waaaanna hear you whisper--"

"HEY, lame-brain!" Inuyasha grabbed the boy in a furious clasp by the collar. "If you're in love with Kagome, then keep it to yourself! I don't give a damn about the two of you, just keep all that away from ME!"

"...In love with who-ha?" Ranma blinked before denoting with laughter. "You DOPE! It's not me I'm singing for! It's YOU!"

Inuyasha's face gradually swapped between colors of caramel and flustered red.

Ranma nicked at the scalp of his hair, still in his comrade's grasp. "She's not ANYTHING at all like you said she'd be. She's actually really, well...cute!"

"Ranma, my dear, favorite little brother?"

"...Huh?"

"Be a good boy, and..._**SIT**_!" Inuyasha chucked him into the pavement, mocking Kagome's usual treatment over him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Poowie, I didn't get to much with this chapter. I can't really slip in the explanations for topcis such as the rosary, Koga, Kikyo, Kaede and Naraku yet. If I did, that would mean Inu' would have to give his secret away to Ranma.

Next chapter will be a bit more informative, or as much of what we can get out of Inuyasha. InuTaisho, Rin and Sesshomaru make their appearance! Akane will be thrown in here a bit later.


	3. Clandestine Brothers

**Chapter: _"Clandestine Brothers"_**

**Disclaimer: **_I wasn't able to guarantee Sesshomaru's appearance in this chapter, only InuTaisho. All I can say is I enjoyed the cliffhanger at the end of the chapter, and perhaps you will too. Finally, something interesting! I'm starting to wonder if I'm adding more conflicts than I can handle in this story, ehe. I can't wait to get to the hurt/comfort chapters, though. _

_Forgive any grammar errors. _

Song Inspiration - **Inuyasha - Fate of Awakening Love** -_-- That song's good for writing, people! _

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_"So...how long will you be gone?" _

_"Uh, I dunno. Who's to say I ever AM coming back?"_

_D'oh, now he wised he hadn't mumbled that. _

_A chill of blunder crawled underneath the tissues of his skin as he stared bug-eyed at the short-haired girl before him._

_She wouldn't meet his violet gaze. _

_She wouldn't raise her head._

_She wouldn't smile. _

_She wouldn't loosen the tight grip on the wrinkle of her dress. _

_"Akane..." he took a bothered step near her, hand outreached in silent argument to comfort her or to let her be. "Akane? Akane, c'mon! Don't be like that. Look at me at least --"_

_"We're gonna miss you, ma' boy!" Mr. Tendo patted his shoulder with manhandle despite the exaggerated feminine tears brooking down his face. "And I PROMISE when we find that ungrateful father of yours, I'll surely let you know before we hang him!" _

_"Gr, RAN-MAAA!"_

_At the roar of his name, Ranma didn't even agonize to glimpse up at the sky the shout was descending from._

_"How DARE you abandon our unfinished battle to go off on some lousy VACATION you JER --"_

_Ranma smoothly shoved Ryoga into the nearest pond, curious eyes on no account deserting the precious girl in front of him._

_Precious..._

_She was never exactly 'precious'._

_She was more of a violent, brick-hard tomboy._

_And yet right now..._

_She looked more precious and vulnerable than he'd ever seen her._

_She looked..._

_She looked..._

_So damn CUTE._

_"Akane...?" Ranma asked permission for her gaze again, azure-toned eyes budding wider under the planes of thick bangs that curtained his forehead. _

_After a long wait, Akane met his bold stare with her own. Her jade eyes were mantled in slivers of stuttering light._

_A flinch got the best of Ranma. _'Is she...is she gonna CRY?'

_"Well, you got what you wanted!" Akane interlaced her fingers at her legs, head cocked with a voice too sugary to be sweet._

_"H-Huh?" Ranma face-faulted, a few hairs sprouted out of place on his scalp._

_"Oh you know, our engagement, silly!" She forged a carefree giggle. "It's finally broken off."_

_Even if he were almost positive her attitude was a stage-act, he couldn't outwit the prickle that pinched the main artery of his heart._

_Ranma's brow quivered._

_He wanted to yell at her._

_Shake her until she finally let go of her pride and told him how she really felt, but his own ego surfaced before his confidence could. _

_"Oh, r-right..." The 'pretty boy' grazed a wandering hand behind his head, laughing shamefacedly. "Yep! J...Just like we wanted, ha-ha! Ha..." _

_An almost unnatural silence came next over the entire Tendo family._

_"Come on, you two. Get on with it," Mr Tendo beckoned under his breath._

_"Hush, Daddy," Nabiki shushed him._

_"Hey, Ranma?" Akane spoke to her feet, fidgeting awkwardly under Ranma's unbendable stare. _

_"Y...Yeah?" Ranma leaned forward, heart thumping; her voice niggled with so much suspense._

_Akane lifted a bashful palm of folded fingers to her lips to almost muffle her offer, "If...if things don't work out there for you, y-you'll always be welcomed here."_

_Despite the kindness of that, Ranma's chest collapsed in unison with the slump of his shoulders._

_"Gee...thanks," his dark eyebrows laced together._

_They stayed in the same place under the ginger rays of the setting sun; Ranma anxious and confused, Akane feverish and uneasy._

_However, during the sheepish pause, Ranma's fingers had twitched._

_There was a foreign lock of cobalt dangling in front of Akane's eye._

_And it didn't belong here._

_Ranma's impulse of trembling fingers reached out to get rid of it, to tuck it back where it belonged so it wouldn't block the atypical color of her eyes. Ranma gulped in determination even as a dribble of sweat raced down his temple._

_Almost there..._

_"Quick, get the CAMERA, Kasumi!" Mr. Tendo urged his eldest daughter. "Their first act of romance!" _

_"Um..." Akane brushed that stray strand away and looked back up at a now stone-Ranma. "Shouldn't you be on your way by now?"_

_Ranma's face paled at his extended hand. He urgently hid it behind him, reminding himself a little mental note of punishing that disobedient hand later._

_"Wh-What, you want me to leave that bad?!" He blurted the first thing he could to coat his own humiliation._

_Akane's eyelashes flurried. "Wha..." her face then crossed over to the color of blue. "That's NOT what I'm saying you insensitive jerk! You're on a TIME limit, REMEMBER?!" _

_"Oh yeah?! Well thanks for being my AIRHORN! Geez, you are SO un-cute!" Ranma practically pressed his button nose up against hers._

_"Well EXCUSE me for being un-CUTE!"_

_"..." Both withdrew and hung their heads in embarrassed shame._

_"Didn't even last five seconds," Nabiki recorded. _

_Ranma peeked up from his jet-black bangs to the flustered Akane. "L...Listen Akane," the rest of his words got netted in the saliva of his throat when she turned to him._

_"W-Wait," Akane squeaked as she dug into the front pouch of her dress. "Before you say anything else..." _

_The crook of Ranma's lip arched as she draped that excuse-for-a-scarf Christmas gift around his sturdy neck. He respected this thoughtful scarf more than he could ever admit to._

_"Just so, you know, you don't forget..." Akane's cheeks blotted a stubborn rosy pink._

_Ranma half-smiled down at the fidgety girl. "Akane..." He then gave her a rather cheesy grin, "Now you know your gorilla punches have already indented the memory of you into my head a thousand times; of course I won't forget you, stupid!" _

_...A vein resided on Akane's temple. "Oooh, RAN-maaa..."_

_But then suddenly..._

_His strong hands gripped her shoulders. "I'll keep it safe," Ranma smiled with a sense of genuine, eyes shining in meaningfulness. "Okay?"_

_Akane's sea green orbs shuddered under the pressure of moisture that thankfully hadn't submerged from the pools of her eyes yet._

_"R...Ranma..." she whimpered, wanting to say more as her fingers tightened into the fabric of her poorly knitted scarf._

_"RANMA!"_

_"RANMA-HONEY!"_

_Ranma and Akane sweat dropped in absolute disenchantment to see Shampoo and Ukyo jogging into view._

_"Ranma, s'ture you leave Shampoo?!" The plum-haired Amazonness cried._

_"What about our engagement, Ranma-honey?!" Ukyo clutced her jumbo spatula to her breast. "You promised!" _

_"Oh GREAT, who invited them?" Akane muttered before shooting a defiant stare at the guilty Ranma._

_"H-Hey, d-don't look at me!"_

_A wrathful squeal split their eardrums in half._

_Before Ranma could crane his head around to the familiar oink, a sharp pang walloped him in the back of his head._

_Shampoo and Ukyo stopped dead in their tracks under terrified gasps, "RANMA! HOW COULD YOU?!"_

_"Well wouldja lookit that..." Nabiki blinked in a monotone response in contrast to everyone's flabbergasted faces._

_"KASUMI! CAMERA! QUICK!"_

_'P-Chan' aka Ryoga clasped his pudgy cheeks between his hooves, squealing like mad. He suddenly felt a flourish of dizziness come over him until he fainted in tears._

_Ranma and Akane stood there, hair standing on end with their lips locked between one another's--_

"DAH!" Ranma spooled straight off the edge of his bed, head-first hitting the timber floor.

Pooch cocked his naive amber eyes at his master before trotting over, woofing out a small yip of concern.

"...Akane..." Ranma blinked, looking past the upside-down pup in front of him and only into a remote memory. "Oof --" his pillow dropped on his face to rouse him wholly from his haunting dream.

Both Pooch and Ranma jumped to hear the door wrench open.

"Yo," Inuyasha greeted as he stood in th entryway with his unfathomable eyes of pale cerulean. "The old man's got dinner ready, so get it together soon, alright? You've been dozing off nonstop around this time of day." His eyelids, out of the blue, went slit and forewarning. "In other words, don't make me have to worry about you."

"U-Uh..." Ranma nodded from his overturned pose before sitting upright. "'Kay, thanks."

It was weird.

Really weird.

Usually Inuyasha, the black-haired Ice King, would tease him with a, _"Oh, so you got up all by yourself, didja? Looks like I won't have to smother you with a pillow to wake you up after all."_

But this afternoon of all times, his eyes were steelier than accustomed to be. Didn't they just come back from Kagome's? After that cheek-kiss, he should at least be smirking.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes even further on his half-brother before turning. Through his side-vision, he noticed that Ranma's pigtail was replaced by wild, thick hair that touched the feet of his shoulder blades.

That wasn't what disturbed him, though.

This so-called 'half brother' of his had isolated stars twinkling in his eyes. They were troubled and hard, something that looked a bit hazardous for Ranma.

"Hey," Inuyasha lastly growled.

Ranma blinked out of his rooting contemplations to frown up at him. "What now?"

"Do something about that; you look like me now."

Ranma tilted his head as he watched the stern teenager exit his presence. He then looked at the straddling strands of hair that rested limply over his collarbone.

_'He must be talking about my hair since his is always down like a wannabe Rapunzel. Tsh, jealous weirdo. Me and him will never have anything in common.'_ Ranma reached for a rubber band, eyes varnished over in memory._ 'Kinda reminds me of that whole Dragon Whisper-scenario. I REALLY looked like him then.'_ He recalled hiding in the janitor's closet to escape Akane's nosiness.

"Akane..." Ranma reflexively vocalized. "I can't believe I'm still getting colorblind dreams of her every now and then." He slapped himself once or twice, trying to blink away the short-term pain and reflection of his ex-fiancee.

Being here was nice.

It wasn't SO nice, but the hospitality from InuTaisho, discourtesy from Inuyasha and neglect from Sesshomaru wasn't so bad either. Inuyasha had brought him the same craziness the Tendos did that kept his sanity.

Being here was nice.

But wasn't something missing?

Something, someone important?

Pooch wagged his tail to and fro to see his owner standing up to let out an arm-stretch.

Ranma allowed a rickety deflate of air to leave him. He aligned his eyes with the window._ 'I knew I'd miss her and everything, but...urgh, damn it all!' _

Pooch lowered his energized tail as Ranma passed him by to tend his affections to a scarf instead of him.

"Stupid Akane...I really sunk this low to depending on her." Ranma whispered, delicate yearn cracking under his voice. "Just what the heck am I supposed to do without you, you un-cute idiot?"

On the other side of Ranma's bedroom door, Inuyasha shifted off his back's weight against that door to continue walking.

"Keh, just like I thought," he huffed. "I told him to do something about that."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Keh."

"Hmph."

Ranma served Inuyasha an irritated glare from the dinner table. The jerk hadn't met eyes with him since he walked into his bedroom. He hadn't exactly braided his hair, though. So maybe that was the reason.

"I hear you met Kagome Higuarshi?" InuTaisho spoke in the course of a majestic voice, wooly black eyebrows raising and almost apparent through his stringy white bangs.

Ranma had muted out InuTaisho, though. The cool mood of his half-brother was adding more abuse to his nerves.

"Hey, the old hound's talkin' to you." Inuyasha reminded him without needing to peek over.

Ranma's attention shot up to InuTaisho. "Uh, yeah! Yep! Sure did!"

"Charming young lady, isn't she?" InuTaisho's eyes sashayed to Inuyasha over his bowl of rice.

Ranma followed his new guardian's watch as well before rolling his eyes.

The stubborn dolt beside him was eating rabidly and trying to tune them out by the looks of it.

"SURE is," Ranma found the liveliness to execute a jagged smirk. "Would make a FINE wife if I do say so myself. Eh, Inu?" He flicked a cracker at Inuyasha's temple.

On cue, Inuyasha's noisy grubbing stood on hold. His bulky eyebrow shuddered, two veins popping across his noggin.

"Don't...**say** that to me," Inuyasha warned in a rumble behind his teeth.

InuTaisho allowed an inward chuckle or two.

"And what are you laughin' at, old hound?!"

"Quit your barking, ungrateful dog. Your attitude is making the food grow colder." InuTaisho ate away at his dishes of sushi in peace and left Inuyasha seething in his chair.

Ranma traded quizzical looks between the two. _'Man, either they're some serious dog-people or...they ARE dog-people.' _

"So Ranma," InuTaisho cleared his throat. "Will you be seeing Kagome again?"

"Uh, I...guess? I mean, I was gonna go visit her little brother tomor--"

"Look, CHANGE the subject!" Inuyasha whammed his hand down on the table, causing some bowls to hop.

When he detected the overused force in that offhanded action, he drew back with a flushed frown of embarrassment.

"Fine." Ranma beached him a dry look. "What do YOU wanna talk about?"

"...How about if you realized that you've got a fishing net around your neck?"

"A fishing-wah?" Ranma diverted his gaze down to the yellow scarf he had instinctively slung around his collarbone. His face dyed red. '_When did I...HOW did I...?' _"H-HEY, it's a SCARF not a FISHING-net, you idiot!"

"It's SUMMER, Ranma."

"Says the guy who wears suffocating HOODIES!"

"At least they don't look like garbage-disposal scraps!"

"It was a Christmas gift from AKANE."

"Akane?" InuTaisho's chopsticks stopped between his tanned lips.

"Yeah, she's my fianc--...er, EX-fiancee. Our dads had arranged for us to marry back at the Dojo."

"Shesh, so she's clumsy at making stuff too. Just your type, huh 'bro'?" Inuyasha slurped up his noodles of Ramen.

"Inu-**YA**-_sha_," Ranma growled forebodingly.

For a first time since Ranma arrived, Inuyasha had never heard such a demonic sound secrete off the boy. This awarded Ranma with fresh new attention from Inuyasha.

"You better watch what the hell comes out of that foul mouth of yours, or else I'll make you CHOKE on those words, GOT it?!" Ranma's fingernails chipped off the paint of the table in a fisting.

Inuyasha only stared.

And stared.

And...stared.

"Keh," he smirked, going back to his meal. "Lovesick pup."

Ranma's face overturned with a tidal wave of red again. "D'oooh it's NOT like that!!"

"I already told you to do something about that; you still look like me." Inuyasha pointed his chopstick at him observantly.

A million question marks exploded like fireworks above Ranma's head.

"Settle down, you two." InuTaisho coughed. "All have you know Sesshomaru will be arriving here soon."

Inuyasha and Ranma's in-sync reactions were mixed between disappointment and distress of, "WHAT?!" and "Are you serious...?"

"He'll be here tonight." InuTaisho seemed to only be tackling Inuyasha with this.

Inuyasha's lips underwent a cycle of gymnastics, "Tonight?"

"Tonight." InuTaisho rumbled.

Ranma sat back to examine just how hardened both men sounded. He wasn't fond of Sesshomaru, but the way Inuyasha handled it was sometimes ridiculous. He couldn't find the relations between InuTaisho or Sesshomaru when it came to Inuyasha, anyway. They had white hair and pointy ears, for Kami's sake.

"But Pops, tonight's--"

"I know what tonight is, but he has...something he wishes to present to you. In front of ALL of us."

"Like what? Death? Ooh, ooh! Lemme guess! Humiliation?!" Inuyasha's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"...Very funny."

"If it's so funny, then why don't you laugh, old man?"

"...It's NOT that kind of FUNNY!"

Ranma stirred his soup with his finger under boredom, unconsciously re-wrapping Akane's scarf around him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_'It's only early nightfall.'_ Inuyasha worried over the darkening sky._ 'Damn you Sesshomaru. How the hell am I supposed to hide this from Ranma if he wants me to be in this little group family meeting tonight? The old hound was implying I told Ranma tonight about it, but...'_

The moon was indistinct but seeable behind the transparent wisps of clouds.

Inuyasha's now amber eyes remained as solemn as an expressionless boulder. He slipped his hands into the sleeves of his hoodie and sat cross-legged in the backyard tree.

_'I can't risk it,' _Inuyasha's mental vote hissed. _'I don't know if I can trust him.'_

His ear's rim twiddled. The snap of a discarded twig caused Inuyasha's muscles to solidify. His eyes raked over the shelf of his shoulder, malice embarking on his baleful iris.

But the only thing that emerged from that rattling bush in the corner was Ranma.

Inuyasha's shoulders unwounded from their tension to see the sixteen year old approaching the old tree in the company of a snooty grin.

"Hey bro, you've looked lonely for two hours straight." Ranma stood under the tree's limb, still grinning. "I mean, the fact that you haven't called Kagome or anything is a bit scary."

Inuyasha solely continued to watch him before facing the faded moon again.

An expression of annoyance smugded Ranma's grin. "Shesh, even a 'keh' would've been better than this."

"What the hell do you want?"

"Mm? Now THERE'S the Inuyasha I've been looking all over for!"

"Ranma, what...the HELL do you WANT?"

Ranma shrugged and settled himself between the tree's lap of roots. "I've been thinking about the whole 'I told you to do something about that' thing you've been saying. You were talking about my hair, right?"

Ranma glanced up to watch his half-brother. The head of flowing black hair didn't sway to reveal the profile of Inuyasha's caramel-tinted face. Instead he sat stiff and silent like a phantom wanting only the friendship of loneliness. Ranma pouted as he fingered at Akane's scarf again.

"...Were you thinking about Akane?"

Ranma's finger stopped. He sucked in a stale breath to hear the sincerity in Inuyasha's voice.

"When I...asked you about that scarf, you looked like you didn't even know you had it on." The tips of Inuyasha's far-reaching mane rocked at the lower of his head.

"Y...You mean was I thinking about Akane when you came in my bedroom?" Ranma prodded his forefingers together, a streak of neon pink striped across the bridge of his nose.

"Yeah..." the tone of Inuyasha came low, awkward and intimate.

"Well, j-just...what's this got to do with MY question...?!"

"...You looked like me because you were wearing the face I wear when I think..."

"About Kagome," Ranma finished.

Inuyasha didn't even flinch or mutter.

"...Kagome's important to me. I want to keep her. When I hurt her I never mean to. I'm just not good with words and a girl's heart or whatever," was all that Inuyasha could muster up to whisper.

Ranma turned his eyes back on his soda can. He studied the label as he pondered over their current discussion. Those poignant words sounded like his own avowal about Akane.

"What about Kikyo?"

At this, Inuyasha stiffened into a marble statue.

"Don't talk about KIKYO," Inuyasha's frosty voice with prickles of bitter ice froze the humid air.

A chill frizzed the hairs on the back of Ranma's neck while he stared widely up at the boy's back. _'So this Kikyo DOES involve him. But she's dead, isn't she? So how could...?' _

"So I hit a nerve, my bad, okay?" Ranma waved his hand drolly. "Let's talk about something else since the moment's so serious. Let's talk about Naraku."

Shockingly, the answer slithered out of Inuyasha's mouth as well, even if after a dragging silence, "He's...an old enemy of the family, especially Kagome's. Awhile back he stole something from them. It was called the Shikon Jewel."

"Shikon no Tama!" Ranma snapped his fingers in remembrance. "I thought that was just an old fairytale!"

Inuyasha ignored him, "Shikon no Tama can grant any wish to the person who holds it. We just recently obtained it from Naraku."

"Any wish, huh?" Ranma's hand drifted over his masculine chest knowingly. "Why haven't you or Kagome wished on it yet?"

"It's not Kagome's place to wish on it. Neither is it mine, but...I'm attempting to anyway after I choose."

Ranma mentally snarled. _'Damn, I could use that to undo this curse of turning into a girl. Maybe if I get it first...'_

"Anyway," Inuyasha rose onto his feet. "Go back inside. InuTaisho will be calling for you."

"Don't gotta tell me twice." Ranma stuffed a dumpling into his mouth that he had brought before ambling back to the house.

Ranma secretly smiled to himself as he tucked his hands behind his back. Even though Inuyasha's confessions were small, it was much more than he could ever expect to get out of him. He really was opening up to him, wasn't he...?

The dreading night was darker than usual since the moon had disappeared beyond their eyes, and Ranma wondered if Sesshomaru was ever going to show up.

"I'll just tell Inuyasha if Sessho' strolls in, don't wake me," Ranma yawned as he arm-stretched his way down the hallway.

He cracked open the door to his half-brother's muggy bedroom. His lilac eye probed around for some source of illumination. When he found the sandy light prying in through Inuyasha's window, he could quite vividly see the long-haired teenager standing before his beloved body mirror.

_'Does he love to look at himself or what?'_ Ranma snorted as the black-haired Inuyasha traced an elongated fingernail around the glass of it.

Wait, hold on...

Was that...?

Huh, he could've sworn his fingernail looked more like a CLAW.

Ranma trashed the hallucination from his mind before studying his half-brother's eye through the profile of his frustrated face.

Was that a honeyed-gold eye instead of pastel violet he saw?

Ranma sweat-dropped now. _'What the hell...?'_

When he ultimately took a glimpse over to the mirror itself, he had to eat and swallow back his wheeze.

The man standing behind the glass of Inuyasha's mirror didn't look like Inuyasha at all! The glinting mane of silvery white resembled more of Sesshomaru or InuTaisho, but the thick black eyebrows and unplumbed eyes could only belong to Inuyasha. But what shocked Ranma more was the fact that his half-brother's ghostly reflection had two white, upright dog ears!

Ranma's pupil collapsed back into his indigo-shaded orb as Inuyasha's body pulsed in the formation of a heartbeat once the last splinters of dusty light diminished into the darkness. The shattering of glass cut at his ears; Inuyasha's bloodied fist trembled against the broken mirror.

"Grah!"

The pigtailed boy froze into himself to see Ditzer growling up at him from the crack of the door.

"Shit," Ranma squeaked, fearful to breathe as Ditzer barked the alarm.

Within seconds, something heavy and inhumane leapt out at him and forced him into the hard wood floor. A vase of roses toppled over and emptied all its water on Ranma.

Ranma opened**_ cobalt-blue _**eyes to stare up at his attacker through now dripping **_red_** bangs. "...In...In-Inuyasha?!"


	4. Dogmatic Distrust

_**Chapter: "****Dogmatic Distrust****"**_

**Disclaimer: **_Thanks for sticking everyone! Especially you, Black and White Kirara. Oi, sorry I haven't been responding as much anymore - I barely have time for anything else on my mom's labtop other than writing, which is a bummer! But I'm always appreciative of you and...shoot, everyone else who reads and reviews. Don't forget! And yes, finally Sesshomaru and Rin make their appearance. _

_Family feud! _

0o0o0o0o0o0o00o0o0o0o0o0

Ranma opened cobalt-blue eyes to stare up at his attacker through now dripping red bangs. "...In...In-Inuyasha?!"

A furred white ear suddenly twitched, as if reassuring it heard right. The gold-eyed beast crouched over her ceased its predatory growls.

"R...Ranma?!" The dog-eared boy choked on the syllables of the familiar name.

Ranma-Chan blinked up at him from between those skin-pasted red bangs, orbs now shrunken and full of frenzied navy-blue. "Inu...Inuyasha is it really YOU? You're a...you're a..."

"No, it...it CAN'T be you! You're a...you're a..."

Ranma's nerves cringed as a clawed finger poked her left breast. "HEY!"

The silver-haired boy drew in a whiff of her aura, artlessly admitting as his chest fell, "Well, you SMELL like him alright. That nauseating funk can only belong to one idiot. So then that only has one meaning! That Ranma Saotome is a CROSS-dresser--YEOW! Watch the EARS!"

Ranma yanked harder on the incline of Inuyasha's canine ear. "So it IS you, isn't it?!" She grated out between clenched teeth supported by a counterfeit smile.

Pooch and Ditzer swapped dull faces.

"You coulda just told me you were a cross-dresser, you know!" Inuyasha grumbled while nursing his sensitive white ear.

"Are you on DOPE, stupid?!" Ranma reeled him in by his silver forelocks of dangling hair. "YOU coulda told me that you were half DOG! And what the hell did you attack me for, huh?! Explain THAT while you're at it!" She demanded in a hoarse, high-pitch voice that disturbed Inuyasha even further.

Inuyasha hauled her up by the collar of her Chinese wardrobe. "I'm not a DOG, you idiot! I'm a dog DEMON!"

"YEAH?! Well--"

"Don't be so humble, little brother. You're a mere _half_-demon."

Inuyasha and Ranma twisted their attention to the collected and taper-eyed Sesshomaru, whose thorny words iced them in their place.

A small girl's head popped out from behind Sesshomaru's baggy leg. She medaled both half-brothers her trademark smile, "Glad to see you two getting along!"

Inuyasha and Ranma swapped dull faces.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The living room was left rather quiet as the five individuals sat around the couch.

Inuyasha's knee fidgeted.

InuTaisho's eyebrow twitched.

Sesshomaru's glare deepened.

Ranma's growl augmented.

"S...So..."

"...'So'?"

"So..."

"SO you're telling me that I've been living under a roof of demons and no one's decided to come out of the closet until I get ATTACKED by one?!"

"Hey, 'BUDDY'." Inuyasha crossed his arms, giving Ranma his profile. "I didn't ATTACK you, okay? I just..thought a threat was eavesdropping on me."

"Who else lives in this house besides me and InuTaisho, you creep?!"

"I was kinda hoping you were Sesshomaru to be 'sincere'," Inuyasha aspirated to the ceiling while he paid no heed to Ranma's fuming.

"How thoughtful of you," Sesshomaru's facial facade stayed unbothered as he stared at the womanly Ranma crosswise from him. "Now can we move onto more important dynamics or should we just bicker until sunrise?"

"We'll start by elaborating our secrets," InuTaisho draped his arm over the back of the couch, referring to Ranma and Inuyasha.

"Saotome?" Sesshomaru urged nonchalantly.

Ranma snapped him a, "WHAT?!"

"Unravel your secret," Sesshomaru's eyelids thinned in skeletal impatience, forcing an unnerved gulp from Ranma.

At least he was finally using his name now instead of 'human'.

"W-Well, uh...let's see," Ranma pushed her forefingers and thumbs together to show her edginess. "How do I start?"

Just then, the teakettle whistled.

"Pop? Makin' tea?" Inuyasha blinked.

"Boiling water for Ramen," InuTaisho released a tongue-curling yawn of fangs and all.

Ranma skedaddled into the kitchen and then returned just as quickly to them with a bucket of water in her other arm. "This'll make things easier. Don't talk, just watch."

Inuyasha, InuTaisho and Rin watched in the midst of interest as Ranma emptied the teakettle's steamy waterfall over her head. When the final trickles of humid water dripped off her damp body, her former self was replaced with the manly Ranma they originally knew. Ranma waited for their gasps before splashing a wave of cold bucket water onto himself. Now he had morphed back into that red-haired girl.

"Oh, I get it!" Inuyasha hammered his fist into his palm, a fanged-smile perked on his lips. "When the old hound said 'boiling water for Ramen', he meant 'boiling water for Ranma'!"

Ranma quickly corrected him by elbow-bashing him upside the head in a sarcastic grin. "Ten points for YOU, genuis."

"Jusenkyo," Sesshomaru realized in a monotonous tone. "So you fell into the cursed hot spring of Jusenkyo. Intriguing."

"Jus-shank-me-oh?" Inuyasha poorly pronounced on purpose while scratching at his scalp with a lone finger. "Never heard of it. What's it got to do with Ranma's cross-dressing?"

"I fell into the stupid spring and got transformed into a stupid girl, STUPID! There! Y'happy? It's a curse I'm trying to get rid of it! But go ahead and laugh all you want!" Ranma huffed and puffed.

But no one was laughing. Not even Inuyasha despite all his nonstop jokes.

"So why didn't you tell us of this earlier, Ranma?" InuTaisho tilted his head into the back of his hand, his thread-like strands falling into one side to reveal the bareness of his forehead. "You've lived here almost a month, have you not?"

Ranma balled her white-knuckled fists. "And why didn't you tell me you were all demons EARLIER?"

InuTaisho studied Ranma behind the illegible eyes only Sesshomaru usually carried. He closed those silencing eyes after a following moment.

Everyone waited apprehensively for InuTaisho's wise answer.

"It's...hard to explain," came InuTaisho's lame excuse that made everyone face-fault, secluding Sesshomaru.

"What do you MEAN it's--"

"Oh for cryin' out loud, we didn't know if we could TRUST you." Inuyasha owned up for his father.

All eyes now leached onto the silver-haired crossbreed.

Inuyasha, however, kept with his cold-shoulder manner and closed his eyes. "There, happy now? Not many humans like being told their half-brother is part demon and take it so well."

"Who cares whether I LIKE it or not?! I need to know for my own benefit!"

Sesshomaru took it from there, "Humans don't know of our small existence in society. We're figments of the imagination as far as some humans care, but those who know often either rant our secret or try to kill us. Both cause unnecessary mayhem. It was better if at least one less human knew. That Higuarshi girl is already aware. Too aware."

"_Ka-go-me_ is trustworthy and would never betray us no matter what the consequence," Inuyasha reminded, building up a threat for Sesshomaru.

"Not all of us are in love with the _Higuarshi_, Inuyasha."

"Why you--"

"S...So you expected ME to have you all murdered? What made you trust Kagome so much?!" Ranma, on the other hand, looked a tad crushed.

"It doesn't have to do with you as a _person_, if that's why your eyes are becoming moist," Sesshomaru's voice narrowed into deeper defense. "Are your emotions stronger as a woman?"

Ranma blinked, embarrassed and confused. "Stronger...?"

"Three weeks of knowin' ya ain't enough to guarantee you'd keep your mouth shut," Inuyasha dipped his head down to scratch his ear with a bare foot.

Ranma stared widely before pouting. "You just said it didn't have to do with me as a PERSON!"

"No, _Sesshomaru_ said that."

As Inuyasha opened his eyes that packaged an amber wall of dogmatic and mistrust that just couldn't be breached, Ranma felt a cramp of hurt under her rib.

"_I_, for one, don't trust you."

Ranma dropped her chin a little, risking another peek up at Inuyasha through her own mounting anger. _'Just what the hell is this?! One minute he's pouring out his feelings about Kagome to me, being NICE, dare I say it! Then the next he's being a total JERK! It better have something to do with his new make-over...'_

"If you ever tell this secret to ANYONE, I won't hesitate to sharpen my claws on you Ranma," Inuyasha menaced cold-heartedly. "_Got it_? I don't care if you're my half-brother. Sesshomaru's breathing proof."

All was quiet except Rin's gasp.

"Fine," Ranma pulled off a mask of cocksure that shocked the whole living room. "If that's how you want it, then I could care less about bragging your little secret. Besides, how would that make me look? Having a half-dog freak for a HALF-brother?"

"That slick_ tongue_ of yours would make a nice Christmas ornament--"

"_Enough_."

Ranma and Inuyasha paused in mid-physical combat to blink over to an irritated Sesshomaru.

"Saotome," he enunciated almost nastily. "Do you wish to know the explanation for this or don't you?"

"...Uh, sure," Ranma warily wiggled her bum in her seat until she got into an attentive upright sitting pose. "I'm all ears now."

"Your mother, Izaoyi, was the lover of InuTaisho, the dog demon," Sesshomaru stopped short to let InuTaisho bow his head. "This was the obvious result of Inuyasha, a half-demon. These hybrids are cursed on one night of every month to show their true form and must hide their identify every new moon to avoid being slaughtered by humans or demons. They are looked at as abominations, filthy-blooded creatures that are sinners to the earth. They are considered weak and vile to full demons and supernatural monsters to humans." Sesshomaru ignored the unwavering stare his father was giving him, but he obeyed quietly against his will, "They may appear to be human outside of these moonless nights and their strengths remain supernatural. The only difference on a moonless night is the abnormal features that can cost them their lives."

"Ohhh..." Ranma's lips drooped in interest. "So how long is a half-demon's lifespan?"

"Longer than you wimpy humans, that's for sure," Inuyasha yawned rudely. "We can live for centuries. My lifespan began in the feudal era, when demons thrived."

"...So that's how you knew Kikyo back then? Kagome's ancestor?" Ranma cocked her head while spinning the red tail of her braid around a fingernail.

But that wasn't the question Inuyasha wanted to hear at the moment. He made this horribly obvious by smashing his fist through the wooden panels of the floor. The exploding splinters almost raked over Ranma's flesh in the process.

Inuyasha growled hatefully into his half-brother's surprised blue eyes. "How many times...do I have to TELL you, you nosy **_BASTARD_**--"

"Inuyasha, HEEL!" InuTaisho barked angrily.

"No YOU heel, old man! If that cross-dressing bastard juggles my nerves one more time, I really WILL kill him!"

"I'd like to see you TRY you heartless asshole!" Ranma shot up to her feet to challenge him.

"Stop it," Sesshomaru called patiently in disregards to the ruckus of the two. "You're frightening Rin."

Both half-siblings gave the cowering girl glued to Sesshomaru's leg an apologetic stare.

"Why do they fight like that, Sesshomaru?" Rin peeped out.

"That's what ignorance and jealousy does to close siblings," Sesshomaru gifted her one of his crooked smirks.

"But they have so much in common!"

"We WHAT?!"

Rin now aimed her conversation to them, "You have so much in common! You both are cursed and want to reverse them, you both get stronger emotions when you're in the alternative form, you both have potty-mouths, share personalities, tempers, mothers, looks, voices and affections for two girls...right?"

"Two GIRLS?!" Ranma and Inuyasha blushed in rhythm with one another. "WHAT two girls?!"

"Inuyasha told me about Ranma's affections for Akane and EVERYONE knows about Inuyasha's affections for Kagome. You're both like two halves of the same soul."

Ranma and Inuyasha exchanged observant stares of the other.

Inuyasha lowered his head as his ruffled silver bangs shadowed his face, but never the distinct glow of embers in his irises.

Ranma's eyebrows curved back as her eyes widened.

But before the stares went on any longer, both turned back to back to each other in a, "Tch! As if!"

"...Lord Sesshomaru was right," Rin giggled sheepishly.

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru's tongue rolled around the letters of Inuyasha's name slowly. "Do you finally wish to know why I'm here in the first place?"

"Because Pop had a one-nighter with the wrong bitch and whoops came the devil child?"

Ranma snorted, earning a look from InuTaisho.

"Amusing," Sesshomaru's slender eyebrows creased downward. "But there's only one reason this time."

"Why one? Shouldn't there be a second consisting of kill your own flesh and blood to rob him of Tetsusaiga?"

"HEY, you hypocrite! Just a few minutes ago you threatened to take out ME, Ranma, over some dumb assumption!"

"For Kami's sake, LET Sesshomaru SPEAK," InuTaisho kneaded his temples.

"Thank you, father. Now, I've come to tell you, _Inuyasha_, that you must not come for the Shikon Jewel any longer now that it is whole," Sesshomaru explained as simple as why the sky was blue.

Ranma noted just how peeved Inuyasha had suddenly gotten at that point.

"And just why in the hell NOT?! So you can have it all for YOURSELF? I don't THINK so."

"Shikon no Tama is a scandalous entity used to manipulate the naive and the WEAK. The 'too good to be true' quotation should never go ignored."

Ranma was leaning inward so far she almost fell off the front of her seat.

"If you become a full fledged demon, you will lose all consciousness of who you are and the ones around you. You'll become nothing more than a mindless, blood-drunk ANIMAL, Inuyasha. The darkness inside the jewel will overpower the light and consume you for its own purposes, not yours. Understand that tales that seems so beautiful, innocent and miraclous are the ones that forever deceive you dream-chasers. Even humans figure that much."

The veins that scrunched the bridge of Inuyasha's nose only worsened as he continued to growl. _'No, he's lying...why in the hell would he go out his way just to help me?! If he thinks I'll trust him, then he's wrong! My past demon-transformations weren't what I wished for. The jewel should understand the innocent yearn in my wish just fine - it'll know I don't want to become a bloodthirsty monster!' _

"You'll be more of a nuisance than you are now to me, at that. You're already a disgrace, so why worsen it? You'd go through all that trouble of losing yourself in the heap of desire just because the world doesn't like your genes? Don't be such a simple-minded weakling, little brother--"

"L...Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin screeched.

In a flash, Inuyasha had lashed out with his razor-sharp claws and grazed off a spike of Sesshomaru's shoulder-armor after the dog demon had jerked rearwards.

Ranma watched in a blend of amazement and horror. Sesshomaru was naturally untouchable, and yet...

Inuyasha held his battle stance a few feet away from his rival. "Next time, I won't miss. I'll _guarantee _that your filthy blood stains my claws."

Rin held her face in place, hoping it wouldn't fall apart from her paling shock. "H-He struck Lord Sesshomaru...! He's barely ever been able to even touch him...!"

Sesshomaru examined the damaged armor. A smirk played on his sleek lips. "Filthy blood you say? Well now..."

"I will not stand by and watch the two of you destroy my home," InuTaisho came among the two, his bitter eyes gliding back and forth between them. "Fall back this instant or prepare to be banned from the property of my residence. That is something that YOU, Inuyasha, can not afford. Not as a half demon."

Inuyasha sneered but didn't object.

"Listen to your 'guardian', little brother," Sesshomaru's smirk seemed to widen. "Or do I have to taste dirty-blood tonight?"

"Shut up, YOU! I WON'T have you tell me what the hell to do with my life or what not to! If I want the damn jewel for myself, then that's MY business! I don't need your pity or your false concern! You can die under the wrath of my claws for all I care! Or better yet..." Inuyasha whipped out the old sword from his sheath to present it to Sesshomaru proudly. "My Tetsusaiga!"

Ranma blinked.

Rin blinked.

InuTaisho slapped his forehead.

"Uh...something supposed to happen here?" Ranma asked.

"Wha...what's going on? Why won't it transform?" Inuyasha batted it against the walls frantically. "COME ON you stupid sword! Trans-FORM already!"

"Fool," Sesshomaru's fingers fell out of his silken hair. "Your purpose for Tetsusaiga isn't worthy enough for it to transform for you. Revenge and murder isn't what was forged into it, now was it, father?"

"What the hell are you going on about?!" Inuyasha continued to beat up the sword nonetheless.

"Tetsusaiga will only transform for you if you wish to protect someone, not yourself or your selfish intentions," InuTaisho sighed inwardly. "Have you not learned anything since Kagome entered your life?"

"Ka...gome?" Inuyasha gazed along the scars of the antique sword. "Kagome...that's right. I had forgotten all about her."

"Sad, isn't it?" Sesshomaru teased, outstretching a clawed hand. "Now little brother, are you going to take my advice or are you?" Sesshomaru's face steeled over into firm seriousness as the useless sword penetrated the wall beside his cheek. He gazed blankly into the half-demon's pained eyes, not even meekly startled.

"Keep your stupid advice," Inuyasha breathed.

He retreated with Tetsusaiga and propped open the window, soon leaping out of it.

"Wait! Inuyasha, where ya' goin'?!" Ranma leaned her head out of the windowpane, scarlet bangs whipping against the force of Inuyasha's leftover winds from the high-jump.

Even though she was sure Inuyasha heard her with his dog-ears, the half-dog demon didn't even make an attempt to turn his head. Ranma watched him shrink into the constellation of stars above.

"Inuyasha..." Ranma bit into her delicate lip, fragments of moonlight wobbling against the blue of her eyes. "Just what the heck does that jerk think he's doing...?"

InuTaisho gazed after Ranma whilst he stood at Sesshomaru's side. "Tell me, my son. Why did you tell Rin that Inuyasha and Ranma were jealous of one another?" He petted Rin's scalp, smiling at her hearty giggle.

"It's as simple as this," Sesshomaru closed his eyes to speak intellectually, "Inuyasha is jealous of Ranma for being human. Ranma is most likely jealous of Inuyasha for having a whole family, despite its dysfunctions. I think he's blind to the fact that he had a family back in the that human martial arts Dojo."

"Inuyasha wants to be a full fledged demon. Have you forgotten that?"

"No, father, I have not. A part of Inuyasha's soul wants the demon rank for utter power and respect, while the second half, the more human-nature wants to be full human to earn the heart and future with that dead priestess's reincarnation."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o00o0o0

"What do you mean next month, Akane?" Kagome twirled the cord of her house phone in her finger.

_"I know, I know! You're upset, but you know how busy things get around the Tendo Dojo!"_ Akane laughed apologetically to her. _"Hey, how about...how about you come out here instead?"_

"Out there?"

_"Sure! Why not? You can bring Inuyasha, Miroku and Sango if you want. The Dojo's got enough room. And maybe you can even let me in on your egg omelet special recipe?"_

"That would be great, Akane, but I'd have to ask mom about it. I mean, a lot's been happening since Naraku was dealt with. I've had to wear the Shikon Jewel around my neck now." Kagome smiled into the phone regardless of the situation.

She had recited all her adventures to Akane ever since they first discovered each other. She went as far as trusting her with her most passionate secrets, including Shikon no Tama. Hopefully that was the right choice...?

_"Sounds thrilling...!"_

"Hm...you sound a lot happier than you did last night. Got a new finacee?" It just homed in on Kagome's memory that Akane never mentioned the name of her ex-fiancee.

_"Oh, 'course not! I've just had everyone at my side now to help me get by. I'm not saying my family and friends haven't been there for me before, but everyone's so generous and understanding...I kinda feel bad for all the attention-hogging. It reminds me why I love this place to begin with. Isn't that right, P-Chan?"_

Kagome laughed at the ecstatic squeal over the receiver. "Be careful, Akane. I think P-Chan is rather in love with you." The confused screech that came next from P-Chan had her roaring in laughter. "Look! He even tries to deny it!"

- Tap -

_- Tap -_

_**- Tap - **_

"Oh! Someone's at my window. It might be Sango sneaking out again. I'll call you back, okay? Alright, love you sis!" Kagome spun around to face her bedroom window, but had to catch hold of her breath in the center of her throat to see amber eyes piercing into her soul. "Inuyasha?" She instinctively slipped the Shikon Jewel pendant down into the front of her blouse. _'I can't let him see it tonight.'_

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_Actually, even though Inuyasha is usually a bone head, he is putting much thought into Sesshomaru's words. Unfortunately, he finds it near impossible to trust Sesshomaru. After all, "this Sesshomaru" could be leading him into false assurance, you know? Why would he of all people want to help him? He could be making something up! And yet the "but still" is going through Inuyasha's mind. He's just confused at the moment and only knows how to cure it through violence and running away. I woulda severed Sesshomaru's armor too if he insulted me that much, lol! _


	5. The Magnitude Between

**_Chapter: "The Magnitude Between"_**

_Song Used - "Feelings" by Floetry (First Theme Song)_

_Yes, I know. I'm a song freak in my stories, but this song comes very close to explaining Inuyasha's feelings in this chapter without me needing to throw it out in his own point of view. _

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kagome charily dragged up the window's blocking pane to let Inuyasha slither on in. She hoped he wouldn't smell the reek of intimidation singed in her skin.

"Sorry for the intrusion, but..." Inuyasha sat on her rugged floor like a dog, ears drooping in shame to bolster the canine-resemblance he took on.

Kagome was actually geared up and ready to lecture him for his self-invitation to cover up her unease. However, when she saw just how puppish he truly looked, childlike and embarrassed, she couldn't help but smile forgivingly.

Any other time than this, he would've picked up on her overwrought odor by now.

"Oh, it's no big deal. Don't you always come to my window on moonless nights?" Kagome leveled with him on the floor so he could get a better clarify on her lenient smile. "Don't feel bad, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha blinked submissively to her smile without the routinely rough lines of all his life's past trials stitched and sewed into his face.

Though like it were too good to be true, that innocuous face went as quickly as it came.

"Tsh, please," the silver-haired boy lowered his eyelids with mockery sizzling on the head of his tongue. "Last time I came 'unwanted' your idea of striking up conversation was SITTING me into oblivion!"

"Well it was your fault for creeping me out!" Kagome defended. "And I never said you were unwanted!"

"You sure as hell_ implied_ it!" -- he yanked on the rosary -- "You're not scared of DYING or Naraku but you're scared of a half-demon staring back at you behind a glass window!" Inuyasha snubbed with his nose to the air as his arms linked across his puffed out chest.

Kagome stared him down expectantly.

"...Hm," Inuyasha folded his hands into his long red sleeves, sweat dropping faintly. "Yeah, I see your point..."

"You know, you sure do give dense a whole new definition."

"What chu say ta' me, wench?!" Inuyasha's eyebrow ticked. "You can be so damn un-CUTE sometimes!"

"Un-cu...--WAIT a second!" Kagome pointed. "You sound just like--"

"SAOTOME!" Inuyasha tugged his ears down at his temples, panicking, "Oh man, oh man, oh man! The bastard is rubbing OFF on me now too!?"

"So I was wrong after all!" Kagome hugged her hands together. "You two really ARE getting along!"

"For once, you were RIGHT 'after all', because Ramen can take a flying leap to the moon for all I give a damn!" The agitate in Inuyasha's chest was traded with a different brand.

He recognized that the mood of Kagome's joking had dropped dead around the outskirts of her aura.

"...Why are you here, Inuyasha?" Kagome softened after a soundless gap in between the conversation.

Inuyasha chanced a peek up at her vexed eyes.

"Is it...for me or is it for the jewel?" Intuitively, Kagome's hand wandered over the lace of the jewel that he couldn't see.

Inuyasha grooved an eyebrow at her worrisome face. "Since when'd you get so stupid, Stupid? I'm not here to rob you of the jewel, y'know! I just needed to get away from that hell hole nutcases would call 'home'! I thought you trusted me better than that!" mentally he winched at his own empty words.

Kagome's heart clenched in a comforted behavior, "So then...me?"

There was an odd quietude floating in the air of Kagome's room. She began wondering if he even heard her meek whisper, or just didn't care to answer.

Bending closer, Kagome ingested back a gasp to behold the passionate stars flailing in Inuyasha's eyes like fiery cinders of reminiscence.

_/I'm emotional_

_You're emotional/_/

"Hey, uh...Kagome?" he began hesitantly.

"H-Huh?"

"Remember...all those times I...'transformed'?"

Kagome blinked and then lifted a fingernail to her chin. "You mean the times when you went totally berserker mode and--"

"YES, damn it," Inuyasha growled out within enragement. "THOSE times."

Kagome stared at him in a wary yet annoyed fashion. _'Well, _somebody_ woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning...'_

/_Could be why we're always_

_Arguing_/

Inuyasha huffed out his aggravation and looked at the folds of his hakama pants as he mumbled, "Look, you do realize I'd never hurt you on purpose, right?"

Kagome straightened up at the uncharacteristic signs of open insecurity he was showing, "Right."

"You know that...I-I don't want to lose you, don't you?"

"Y...Yes."

"You know I can't give anything to you, if not much, don't you?"

"...Inuyasha, what are you getting at? Is everything okay?"

Inuyasha continued to ignore her and keep his cinnamon eyes hemmed to his pants.

/_Conversations short_

_It's just become_

_Much too difficult/_/

Kagome's eyelashes dipped lower into her azure irises, "Everything's not okay...is it?"

The hybrid chained his filmed-over stare to the kinks of the carpet now, "Kagome, if I...if I'm a full fledged demon, if I become a murderess monster, and if I can't...if I can't _protect _you anymore..."

/_I don't know what to do_

_I don't know what to prove_

_This is more than me_

_So much more than you_/

Kagome's heart gritted in further as blood gushed out of it more forcefully, making it impossible for more blood to seep in.

Inuyasha clenched his fangs and nailed his eyes shut irately, body trembling while he fisted the carpet's curls. '_Damn it, I can't tell her what Sesshomaru told me. I can't tell her I was planning to steal the jewel from her again, despite all we've been through.' _An importune look darned into Inuyasha's suffering face._'Why me?! All I came to do was take the damn jewel from her, but looking at her now...'_

/_I just can't decide_

_If it's you I want_

_Do I wanna choose between_

_Having you in my life?_

_Or losing you for real because_

_I caught feelings?_ /

The conscience in his head read him clearly and narrated what it translated, _'**Unclose.'**_

The hairs on the back of his neck stood._ 'Damn it, not right now, not here...'_

_**'You fill yourself with falsehoods that devour your inner being. You wanted to run to your mate this moonless night, being half-mortal and half of me, your vulnerability can only be entrusted with one person. Your mate.'**_

_'Get the hell outta my head!'_

/_Sometimes blindness _

_Finds me_

_And leads me through ignorance_/

_**'You wanted to see a Higuarshi tonight, not Shikon no Tama. The dead priestess was never your desired mate. It was always Shikon no Tama, to become full demon for us, to become full human for priestess. And now Shikon no Tama is no longer your desired mate, a Higuarshi is.'**_

/_/I couple with self-pity_

_And walk aimlessly_

_Through reality_/

_'I SAID to get the fuck out of my--...wha?'_

Unpredictably, Inuyasha jolted into life to experience a pair of affectionate fingers stroke the edges of his white ears. A sleepy enigma of appease hazed over him as a left hand caressed his jaw and guided his head into something soft and spongy. Blood surfaced over the bridge of his nose to hear the soothing lullably of a heartbeat.

"K..K-Kagome?" Inuyasha's voice cracked under the name.

"Shh," Kagome smiled lovingly even as she continued to weave circles into he pads of his sensitive ears.

He didn't dare himself to rob a look up at her from over the swell of her breast. He froze and gelled himself in the rapture of her body warmth while she went on kneading his furry appendages.

_/I just can't decide_

_If it's you I want_/

Just as Inuyasha's face relieved into a rare expression of total peacefulness, Kagome's voice stunned him again.

"You know Inuyasha," she started, laughter tickling underneath her tongue. "I like you even more when you're _like this,_ a half-demon with the cute ears and especially the gold eyes and silver hair."

"Like.._.this_?" Inuyasha's orbs shrunk into astounded China saucer-plates.

All the effects running through his mind, all the emotions drowning his heart were over brimming him.

/_Do I wanna choose between _

_Having you in my life?_/

"Kagome..." her name quaked in his dry throat as he stared into a dimension of amaze under half-lidded and transformed eyes.

Kagome's bosom rose in an inflate of oxygen at the sudden sensation of his clawed hands reeling her into him a tad more.

/_Or losing you for real because_

_I caught feelings_/

Inuyasha's honeyed eye shimmered over the bulge of her breast as he tried to cope with the harrassing feelings.

Her heart was beating faster...

He almost smiled.

/_You've got me caught_

_In a starry-eyed world_

_Of dream_s/

Yet the next move he made felt unreal and whimsical to Kagome.

Her massaging fingers stopped at the bases of his upright ears until they eventually dropped to her heart to see Inuyasha rising. He hovered over her, being feet taller even in their seated posture, with an impression in his eyes that only haunted her fantasies.

"Prove it to me," he demanded like his old self.

"Prove...what exactly?" Kagome made the smallest shift of a flinch to demonstrate the fear and fervor warming her belly._ 'Wh...Why's he leaning so c-close?'_

/_I don't know what to do_

_Don't know what to prove_

_Is this more than me?_

_So much more than you?_ /

Inuyasha didn't relax the concentrated muscles in his facial facet, but that flicker in his majestic eyes...

"Just shut up and prove it to me, Kagome," he muttered like he were short of breath.

The half-demon could now see the flushed freckles that bridged over her nose come into full view.

"Inu...Inuyasha?" the raven-haired girl rapsed, the breath whispering against the outer frame of his lips. "What are you doing?"

"Prove to me that you're not afraid of these," A tongue flicked around Inuyasha's fang to emphasize. "Or these," he raised his clawed fingers to near her cheek shakily. "Prove what you just said. Prove it that you're not afraid of me this way..."

/_And I dared to seek_

_Truth in promises_

_You've made to me_/

"W...Why?" Kagome could scarcely breathe out. "Y...you don't b-believe me? Is that it?"

"NO, you impractical wench! I just...! I-I just...I just wanna make sure," Inuyasha struggled in a fragile whisper. "You're sure."

This person.

This half-demon.

This Inuyasha.

Wasn't Inuyasha at all.

That glitter accumulating in his eyes never dawned unless Kikyo was on his mind.

Kagome's heart bled bloodily._ 'So that's i-it. He's looking at me like this because...it's all because...'_

Inuyasha's nose twitched at the whiff of fresh salt. He halted his hand and stared down on the girl before him behind wrecked eyes.

"Ka..g-gome?" he stumbled in fear.

/_Do I wanna choose between_

_Having you in my life?_

_Or losing you for real_

_Because I caught_

_Feelings_/

Kagome twisted her head away in a painfully swift action. Her eyes were squeezed shut with crystallite pearls of salt beading her long eyelashes and her upper row of teeth biting into her lip.

Inuyasha went on staring. _'She's..._afraid_ of me?'_

/_What made you turn_

_Around on me?_

_What did I do?_

_I must look like an enemy_

_To yo__u_/

Wrinkled moon crests of extreme shock molded themselves under his now owlish eyes. His world had crash landed right over his head and this familiar numb niggling in his heart was morbid.

/_It makes you feel short of breath_

_You feel wounded_/

- **BRING, BRING** -

Kagome's phone went off, accessing her to spring up from the dense atmosphere.

"I'll get it!" she yelped and dashed for it.

Inuyasha was now gazing into the oblivion sitting erect from him.

He soon lowered his head and closed his eyes, just to reopen them with that recognizable wall gradually remodeling itself to glaze over honey irises. They would no longer be portholes to his heart.

_/I'm not afraid_

_Of the pain_/

The half-demon leapt onto the sill of the window to make his grand exit --

"Oh, hello Ranma! What are you doing up so late?"

"...!!" Inuyasha's hysteric ears waggled.

"A...date you say? Well, I don't think I'm busy tomorrow, no."

Inuyasha's 'smiling' lips twitched and his pupils collapsed into the white of his eyes, eyebrows shuddering. _'Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts, think happy FUCKING thoughts!'_

/_I just can't pretend_/

"Sure, I guess I could meet you. What time you say?"

_'Think happy SONG, yes! Weeelcome to my haaaappy world...'_ A vein popped over Inuyasha's shaking fist. _'Now get your shit and LEAVE.'_

/_/I just can't pretend_/

"I really thought you were gonna ask about Inuyasha, though. Yeah, he's here. U-Uh...Ranma? Hello? You still...you still there?"

_'Oh SCREW THE SONG! I'M NOT HAPPY!'_ He suddenly whirled on Kagome in a flash. "So THAT'S it, huh!? You're drooling all over that bastard cross-dresser!"

"Huh...?" Kagome blinked, wide-eyed while clutching the cellular to her.

"Don't play STUPID, wench!" He chided and pointed in accusation. "You're dating him, aren't you?! That silence of yours is digging you into a deeper hole, Kagome! Damn him...I'll KILL 'im!"

/_I just can't decide_

_If it's you I trust_/

"Inu-ya-_sha_..." Kagome tweeted calmly, before going haywire, "Just what do you take me for?! I can't believe you'd even ask me that! Of course I'm not dating Saotome! He only wants to come see the Shrine tomorrow and play with Sota! So get real! Didn't I tell you I didn't like him better than you?!"

"Uh..." Inuyasha's face heated up, as well as Kagome's.

He quickly turned his face down, eyes hidden from her so all she could make out was the wisps of silvery bangs.

/_And here we are again_/

"If that's true," he growled. "Then why the hell don't you act like it?"

"Act on WHAT?"

"Will you quit being a complete moron?! Your skull ain't THAT thick, woman! So spit it out already!"

"Fine then," Kagome glared. "Kikyo! Satisfied?"

/_/If it's not your way_

_Then it must be mine_/

Pause.

"K...Kikyo?"

"Kikyo," Kagome droned more softly. "You see her. You always see her. You only see her. She's all you think about, and since I'm her reincarnation I figured..."

Inuyasha's eyebrows curved back into a nit of disbelief. "...Is that really all you think of _me_, Kagome...?"

Kagome peered up at him from under her silky hair, now being the one to take the risks.

Inuyasha seemed to be placing a hard stare over her very soul. His eyes looked like unarmed windows again, except the glass seemed cracked in the center to illustrate the wallowing hurt drenched on them.

/_I just can't pretend_

_That you're just a friend_

_When we took it further_

_And passions still remain_/

"Stupid idiot," he whirred casually and faced away from her eyes. "Stop trying to act like you know what the hell's going on in my head every damn second!"

"I'm not trying to be selfish, honestly! I understand that you can't ever forget your first love--"

He then glared snappily at her, "You don't think I think about _you _every once and awhile, wench?!"

/_Can't communicate_

_Can't even compromise_/

"..."

...Inuyasha went stiff and reddened.

"U-Uh...I didn't m-mean it like THAT, I just...damn it, stop LOOKING at me like that!"

Kagome cocked her head, too cutely for his fondness. "You...you think about me sometimes, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha stared at her as the growls rumbled in his throat's base. He then acquainted her with his back in an ignorant puff of breath, "Just forget everything that happened tonight. It meant nothing and never will mean anything, so don't go getting any stupid ideas, got it?"

Kagome felt like yanking on his hair and screaming at him, to 'sit' him a trillion and one times. A second later, she finally caught the lines of red filing his cheek from the profile of his exotic face.

/_I__'m emotional_

_You're emotional_

_It could be why_

_We fight all the time_/

She smiled.

"Did I make myself clear?" Inuyasha gave her the back of his silver mass, as if aware of her notice.

"Mmhm," she giggled.

Inuyasha glimpsed back at her without the harsh rigidness scarring his otherworldly features before crouching to high-jump.

/_Do I really wanna choose between _

_Having you in my life?_

_Or telling you goodbye_/

"And Inuyasha?"

"Huh?" Inuyasha stared back over his broad shoulder.

Kagome was...smiling.

Happily.

She wasn't looking past him either; she was looking directly at him.

_/Because I caught feelings? _

_It's almost unreal_/

Red cursed Inuyasha's complexion once again. "What is it NOW, damn it?" he tried to revive his cool act in a desperate way of disregarding her.

"Thank you," Kagome's sapphire eyes tendered even further to torment him.

"W...Wouldja stop gettin' all mushy? I didn't DO anything!" His eyebrow trembled in sync with the widening of his now buggy eyes as more hot scorch roasted his face.

_/We're so dramatic_/

Kagome's eyelids closed upwards to brighten her unfazed beam, the titter from her voice box intensely soothing him.

"K...Keh," Inuyasha grumbled in muddle as he once again turned from the spells of that trademark smile. "Whatever, wench..."

/_We're so romantic_/

And with that, he was soaring off over the crowns of houses.

"Whatever you say," Kagome sighed in merriness. "Dog-boy..."

Secretly though, Inuyasha was smiling in the rushing winds.

/_I __just can't pretend_

_Because I love experiencing you_

_I love the ups and downs with you_/

"Hmph," his smile broadened as he pounced from roof to roof through the illuminated night. _'Thank you too...Kagome.'_

/_I can't even believe we're here_

_After all we've been through_/

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"He better not try and stop me tomorrow," Ranma Saotome griped as he slammed the phone back down on its hook. "I'm going to that Shrine whether he likes it or not."

"You sound determined."

Ranma, in his original masculine form, rejoined Sesshomaru's nosiness with a glower, "Mind your _own_ business!"

Sesshomaru only slanted his wintry eyes.

Ranma couldn't help but flinch, "W-What's up with that face, huh? You got a problem you need '_help_' sortin' out?"

The dog demon slipped a clawed hand into his snowy hair of thinness, "Tell me, Saotome. Why do you take such persistent interest in that Higuarshi girl?"

"Interest?!" Ranma's nerves pinched, but he tried to recover. _'Urgh, better just play along.'_

Sesshomaru's indecipherable expression didn't vary as Ranma looked at the ceiling for answers with a phony smile of adoration.

"Aw, that's easy!" Ranma rubbed his chin. "She's cute, smart, nic--"

"Do you realize she is Inuyasha's mate? Or are you opaque?"

"His huh-what?"

"To spare your brain the agony, in human terms it means 'wife'."

"...WOAH! Inuyasha's got finacees too?!"

"Yes and she is to be his."

"Lemme guess, InuTaisho forced him?"

"Inuyasha chose her."

"...He did? He really claimed Kagome?"

"Not verbally, but it's obvious he wants to be her future no matter how he denies it."

Inside, Ranma felt like smiling for Inuyasha. However, he feigned to be indifferent towards the tittle-tattle on his half-brother's feelings, "Tch, and? If he hasn't even asked her out yet then there's still an opening for me."

"Don't try to inveigle me or yourself, you pathetic _human_," Sesshomaru's eyes seemed to narrow out even more by the itching second. "You're already a jailbird."

Ranma sweat-dropped whilst laughing stupidly, "Aha! What do ya', uh, m-mean?"

"After your conversation over the phone ended, you mentioned nothing could stop you from going to that priestess shrine tomorrow. You said nothing about going to see that Higuarshi, like an infatuated mortal would usually do."

"Well look who's talking, EAVESDROPPER!"

"I'm a dog demon, in case you've forgotten," Sesshomaru approached him composedly. "My hearing is perceptive."

"Oh yeah?! Well whoopee-flippin' do for ya'," Ranma blinked widely, trying to understand how close Sesshomaru would come.

"You are an imprudent human," Sesshomaru acknowledged while passing Ranma right by. "Heed the words I gave to Inuyasha and stay away from the jewel. When I slay Inuyasha, there will be no point in killing him as a mindless full fledged demon thanks to the Shikon Jewel. And if you get in my way of that, your head will be perched on my wall."

Ranma gulped while the ends of the demon's hoary hair whispered past the profile of his face._ 'Does he know about my intentions?'_

"Rin, come," Sesshomaru turned half a quarter to eye back at her. "We shall take our leave."

"Bye, Ranma!" Rin waved to him. "Tell Inuyasha I said goodbye! Good luck with your fiancees!"

"Uh...yeah," Ranma only stared at this incomprehensible Sesshomaru. "Sure, kid..."

"You are more like my half brother than I could have ever imagined," Sesshomaru's tone sounded to be smirking. "Which is why you can't get along."

"Hey, what chu say --" In a gust of tornado bluster, he vanished from the living room without a trail. "Urgh," Ranma snarled Inuyasha's customary growl, balling his fists and spraining his knuckles. "Damn him..."

Just then--

"Inuyasha...!" Ranma sucked in a fusty breath of oxygen once Inuyasha arrived from the window which he left. "Y-You're back!"

Inuyasha looked at him from the sill, holding that family-face of unreadable emotion. Without the routine 'keh', he hopped inside and closed the window to turn back to Ranma quietly.

Ranma crinkled a dark eyebrow from under his ebony bangs.

"If you're going with Kagome tomorrow," Inuyahsa's molten eyes hardened more sinisterly beneath the shadows of his own nichrome bangs, "I better not hear a single word of you laying a lecherous finger on her."

"Hmph," Ranma rubbed a cocksure finger under his nostrils. "Glad to see you're back to your old self again." _'To be honest, he's less like himself than before.'_

Inuyasha closed his eyes and brushed past Ranma like Sesshomaru had, but with more attitude than usual.

"Oh, by the way, why were you at Kagome's?" Ranma spun around to face Inuyasha's back which was curtained by his sleek locks.

Inuyasha's ear tweaked and he stopped in mid-step.

"You were at the Higuarshi Shrine?" InuTaisho strolled in from the kitchen with a cup of ramen.

"'Course not...he was at Kagome's BEDROOM!" Ranma gossiped._ 'Just a little more of this and...'_

InuTaisho sighed and shook his head, "And you call that poor monk a lecher?"

"We didn't DO anything, okay?!" Inuyasha barked at them both, inflamed in the face. "I just needed to talk to KAGOME about some things!"

"Yeah? About what position she likes --"

Inuyasha hammered his fist into Ranma's face.

Ranma's body went wheeling into the wall of the living room in one earth-shattering quake.

"Don't you EVER talk about Kagome in that way ever**_ again_**," Inuyasha held battle stance with his claws readied for combat.

"Y-You...you," Ranma rubbed his bloody and pitted nose before scowling over his palm at the half-demon. "Heh," he abruptly smirked. "Just what I expected, muff-face. You defend Kagome's dignity but you don't defend your own. I wonder what THAT says."

"Grah," Inuyasha grinded his fangs, "Shut up and FIGHT ME!"

"Wish GRANTED!" Ranma stormed toward Inuyasha at inhuman pace to match his own.

Each let out a battle cry until they collided.

InuTaisho's eyes shot open before falling back into a look of boredom as the half-brothers squabbled and bulldozed the family room with their bodies. "I'm not sure if it's in Izaoyi's genes or not, but her pups always turn out dysfunctional in some sense..."

Fuming and scarred, Ranma and Inuyasha charged at one another and locked their palms in a melee of strength.

Inuyasha clenched his saber-tooth fangs, Ranma gritted his teeth.

Their biceps and triceps rippled underneath the skin that sheathed their arm-muscles whilst their intermingled fingers quavered against on another's hands. The floor supporting their toes dented into a concaved hole.

"I take it back," Inuyasha snarled huskily. "You don't have my permission to be in Kagome's presence!"

"Teh," Ranma grinned in spite of the sweat tickling down his pulsing temple. "You're not the government, half-dog! If I want to see Kagome, then that's my business!"

"No it's," Inuyasha broke off the link of their palms and made a move to hack Ranma, "**_NOT_**!"

Ranma dodged the tacky tactic in a heartbeat "You cheap shot! Fight like a man, not a demon!"

Inuyasha reared back his opened palm of fingers and chanted, "_Iron Reaver, SOUL Steal_--"

Icy-cold water washed over their bodies.

"H...H-Hey!" Ranma-Chan pouted up at InuTaisho while hugging her freezing body, "D-Didja hafta make it so c-c-cold?!"

"What the hell was THAT for, ya' old hound?!" Inuyasha wildly shook off the wetness on his body like a mongrel.

InuTaisho pointed a sharp finger at the living room.

Both Ranma and Inuyasha took the time to make out the absurdity of the mess that bedecked the family room, "Whoops..."

InuTaisho tossed the clanking bucket aside to head for the halls and grumbled away, "Clean. It. _Up_."

Inuyasha and Ranma-Chan gave one another innocent stares before leaping back into battle again.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Inuyasha carried two buckets of soap and water into the backyard at a grudging trudge. He adjusted the scarf over his flattened ears before emptying out the pails into the bushes.

"Stupid family, I hate this god damned house," he groused in selfish-terms while booting a bucket out of his foot's way. "Fucking hate this place, this town, EVERYTHING!"

The half-demon stripped off the scarf and let his smothered ears spring free to shed all their glory to the stars. He stood in the brusque winds of the midnight zephyr, squinting against the impaling sting of chill.

"Keh, I should've stayed there till morning," Inuyasha suggested to the shadowy clouds that coasted slothfully over the gardens of the backyard's plot.

His shoulders sagged and freed their cramped tension in memory of a particular Higuarshi's rare scent. On impulse, his nose wriggled to revive the remembrance.

"Kagome," his glistening lips danced in rhythm of the words that voiced out of his mouth.

"Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha flinched in reaction of seeing InuTaisho's dancing pony tail seep into the corner of his eye's sight. "Wh-What are you doing out here?"

"What does it look like to your eyes?" InuTaisho crossed his arms expressionlessly as he stepped out of the house.

Inuyasha's face creased sour and ironic, "Eavesdropping."

InuTaisho pointed a clawed fingernail to his sharp ears, "Not essentially if you've got the ears to hear from miles away."

"Keh, there's a difference between hearing and listening, old man!" Inuyasha blamed.

"And so there is," InuTaisho angled his body beside his youngest son's, his - all of the sudden - testy stare outlining Inuyasha's naked heart.

"What is it now?" Inuyasha lacked the shrewdness in his question this time.

"Is Higuarshi -- "

"_Kagome_," Inuyasha scolded.

"...Kagome, really the one?"

"What the hell do you mean 'is she really the one'?" Inuyasha slipped his wrists into his draping sleeves.

"Kagome is looking more like your future mate as the years continue to swell your affections for her."

"A-Affections?!" Inuyasha cringed back into a dramatic and flustered pose. "Sorry to burst your bubble 'Pop', but there ain't no AFFECTION goin' on between me and that human wench!"

InuTaisho's poised face distastefully crinkled into a vinegary demeanor, "WATCH that crude tongue of yours, boy. It is unwise to insult your dead mother."

Inuyasha loosened his bad humor at the mentioning of Izaoyi, but didn't unwind, "Then don't shove Kagome's name in my face!"

"So then you're not planning to make her your mate?"

"What the hell did I jus' say?! I believe it was 'NO'!" Inuyasha turned from his father to disguise his blush and hoisted up the fallen buckets.

InuTaisho caught the stench of disappointment charred on Inuyasha's body.

"I don't know why you think your pride needs to be defended so badly; no one cares about what you strain to hide."

Inuyasha growled at his father, but didn't raise his head to turn back to him directly, "Keep your 'words of wisdom' to yourself, old hound."

InuTaisho's wooly eyebrows knotted back into the fringe of his bangs, "Inuyasha...don't throw her away. You will never find anyone like her ever again. Kagome is fond of you because you are different. Do you recall how strong her feelings for you became when she discovered you were half-demon? What will she think when you use that jewel to become full human? Will you be special to her? The _God _that reflects so soundly in her pure eyes?"

"Who the fuck said I'd become full HUMAN with Shikon no Tama?!" Inuyasha felt like disarranging someone's face right now.

"Your scent, your actions, your depression," InuTaisho listed. "You can't fool me like you fool the world. You're becoming less selfish, Inuyasha. Or maybe you're becoming more, all because you want the heart of this girl to be yours."

Inuyasha's fangs almost split through the skin of his lower lip at the teeth-clenched snarling.

"Like I said, you'll never find someone like Kagome in this world."

"I found KIKYO, didn't I?"

"KIKYO wasn't fond of you because you were_ different_," InuTaisho raised his roar on her name. "Kikyo was fond of you because like she, you were lonely and accustomed to hiding your emotions behind that _gate_ you always put up. Kikyo was fond of you because you were the _same_. She never truly saw the soul behind your appearance, but the similarity. Neither of you defined the definition of love, not even now after learning of Naraku's scheming betrayal. The feeling that fuels your heart for her is failure and the yearn to repair it. That is all you can think about - your debt, not your love."

Surprisingly, Inuyasha didn't even budge or turn on InuTaisho's boldness. He pored over these words and took them into realization, but it came with a hefty side dish of sting.

"Despite being her reincarnation, Kagome is much different than Kikyo and is free of Kikyo's past life dilemmas. She doesn't want to sacrifice your half-demon originality for the prize of eternal peace. That is a true factor and display of love. She would make a good mate."

The only thing voicing their opinion in the garden patch was the crickets that sung with their limbs. A draft of wind stilled InuTaisho and Inuyasha.

"...I could care less about the whiny wench."

After such bold grunts, Inuyasha disappeared behind the slamming doors of the house.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Morning awakened too early for Inuyasha and too late for Ranma.

The half-brothers barely uttered a word to one another, only exchanged hardy glares as they crossed halls.

"Breakfast is on the table," InuTaisho notified almost robotically without needing to steal a disapproving glance at the two brothers from the kitchen.

Inuyasha was the first to break the eye-war with Ranma with a squint in his indigo-paled left eyelid. His black forelock slinked off his collarbone at the redirecting shift of his head and eyes.

Ranma blinked frowningly at the new-fangled attitude.

The Saotome could unmistakably see the strain of Inuyasha's hateful frowns. He could see the evident ache that he struggled to shimmy back down into the nadir of his heart.

_'He's in love with her,'_ Ranma looked at him through the corners of his eyelids in suspicion. _'It's really worse than I thought, at that.'_

Inuyasha threaded into the kitchen and chaired himself at the breakfast table. Ranma eventually followed the same procedure.

The peace at the table from there on out was more disturbing than the daily-morning chaos.

InuTaisho's orangey orbs darted from Ranma to Inuyasha, Inuyasha to Ranma.

Ranma looked to be bird-watching Inuyasha's every stir as he guardedly filled his belly.

Inuyasha was eating, dare he think it, civilly. There was no loud crunching or insolence searing off his daily attitude. There was just the anomalous face of slackened eyes and gradual swishing of pudgy cheeks stuffed with rice.

Ah, no ramen either?

InuTaisho loudly pinned his bowl to the table.

Ranma was the only one to jostle up his full attention to him. Inuyasha stopped eating after the moment, but never snapped up his head the way his half-brother had.

"Ranma," InuTaisho smiled. "What time are you going out with Kagome?"

"Um..." Ranma scratched his cheek. "Around twelve, I think?"

Inuyasha's fingers squeezed around the frail chopsticks, but he didn't wheeze out a growl to adorn it.

"It's only ten now," InuTaisho scrutinized his watch. "So then you'll be on your way very soon."

"Yeah, I...guess," Ranma stooped over his dish, picking at his plate.

The guilt had been diagnosed in his bloodstream once again. The more Ranma learned of Inuyasha's true feelings for the Higuarshi, the more he wanted to retreat from his plan.

But out of the blue --

"Kagome Higuarshi would make a very fine daughter in law," InuTaisho announced.

Ranma nearly fell off his chair and Inuyasha nearly spat out his rice.

"Not THIS shit again!" Inuyasha, at last, respired out of his blistering throat.

"Hey, he's right, bro!" Ranma set a promised pat or two on Inuyasha's curved back. "You and Kagome WOULD make a cute wittle married couple!"

"Get real!" Inuyasha yapped, restraining from the lust to bite Ranma's hand off. "Like I'd ever even CHEEK kiss a scrawny toothpick like her!"

"Actually," InuTaisho's calculating eyes split open. "I wasn't referring such a pleasant comment to Inuyasha."

Both half-brothers seemed to shriek, "Come again...?"

"Judging by your disrespect, I was right to not direct it to you," InuTaisho propped a small quantity of sushi into his mouth.

Ranma half-died in his chair when InuTaisho progressively veered his eyes into his direction.

A plotting smile seeded on InuTaisho's tan face, "Ranma?"

"DAH?!" Ranma's frizzed hairs bloomed out of his scalp to express his anticipation of horror.

"Since I am now your legal guardian for the time being," InuTaisho tipped his head into the left and allowed slender strands to tilt with it. "I want Kagome Higuarshi to be your new finacee."

...Inuyasha's chopsticks snapped in half.


End file.
